CopyPublished | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal
...For the purpose of distributing
taxes collected pursuant to this subsection, the term
“school operational purposes” includes charter schools
sponsored by a school district. Millage elections conducted
under the authority granted pursuant to this section are
subject to s. 1011.73....
...The key question is whether the voters
expressed a preference for severability of any invalid portion of the
referendum. They did not.
In short, the referendum’s proceeds cannot be shared with the County’s
charter schools because the voters never approved a levy for the benefit of
charter schools.
Section 1011.73 articulates the remedy for an illegal referendum:
invalidation of the election. See § 1011.73(1), Fla. Stat. (2018) (“In the
event any such election is invalidated by a court of competent jurisdiction,
such invalidated election shall be considered not to have been held.”); §
1011.73(2), Fla....
CopyPublished | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal
...which called for a referendum on an additional millage to be placed on
the November 5, 2024, general election ballot. See §
1011.71(9), Fla.
Stat. (2023). The resolution and the text of the referendum called for the
tax to be imposed from July 1, 2025, until June 30, 2029. See
§
1011.73(2). The referendum directed the County Commissioners to
instruct Craig Latimer, the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections,2
to place the measure on the November 5, 2024, general election ballot.
See §
1011.73(3).
On July 17, 2024, the County Commissioners determined that they
had the authority to decide when the School Board's referendum should
go on the ballot....
... general election ballot. In the trial court, the parties disputed which
entity, the School Board or the County Commissioners, had the authority
to decide on which ballot the referendum would be placed. The trial
court granted the petition, determining that section 1011.73 vested the
School Board with the right to select the general election at which the
referendum would be voted on and that the County Commissioners had
the ministerial duty of "calling an election" on the date selected by the
School Board....
...ETS of New Orleans,
Inc.,
793 So. 2d 912, 914–15 (Fla. 2001)). And we must "exhaust 'all the
textual and structural clues' that bear on the meaning of a disputed
text." Conage v. United States,
346 So. 3d 594, 598 (Fla. 2022) (quoting
Watson,
333 So. 3d at 169).
Section
1011.73 provides in pertinent part:
(2) MILLAGE AUTHORIZED NOT TO EXCEED 4 YEARS.—The
district school board, pursuant to resolution adopted at a
regular meeting, shall direct the county commissioners to call
an elect...
...of
the notice of the election and all expenses of the election in
the school district shall be paid by the district school board.
The County Commissioners insist that they have discretion to set
the date of the election because under section 1011.73(2) they have the
duty to "call an election" and that the phrase "call an election" means to
pick a time during which an election will be held....
...The statute at issue in that case and
the statute at issue in this case are materially distinguishable. Section
100.111(2)(c) placed the sole authority on the governor to "call" the
election. That statute did not give the authority to any other entity to
direct the governor to do so. In contrast, section
1011.73(2) expressly
gives the School Board the authority to direct the County Commissioners
to call an election.
Further, we cannot decide this issue by defining "call an election"
as it is used in section
1011.73(2) in a vacuum. Rather, we must
consider the context of the statute and give effect to every clause in
section
1011.73, according meaning and harmony to all of it parts....
...at they have
discretion to set the date of the election. The legislature simply elected to
have the County Commissioners serve as the mechanism by which the
School Board's measure is placed on the ballot.4
This is illustrated by the context of section 1011.73, including the
rights and obligations of the School Board under Florida's Constitution
and part II of chapter 1011, titled Funding for School Districts....
...Section
1011.71(9) provides that "a school district may levy, by
local referendum or in a general election, additional millage for school
operational purposes . . . . Millage elections conducted under the
authority granted pursuant to this section are subject to s.
1011.73."
4 County commissioners have the general authority to place
questions or propositions on the ballot....
...(2023) (outlining the powers and
obligations of district school boards). Although county commissioners'
general authority to place questions or propositions on the ballot is
subject to a majority vote of the county commissioners, §
125.01(1)(y),
the more specific provision of section
1011.73(2) imposing a ministerial
duty to call an election as directed by school boards controls in this case.
See McKendry v....
...2d 45, 46 (Fla. 1994) ("[A] specific statute
covering a particular subject area always controls over a statute covering
the same and other subjects in more general terms.").
7
Reading these provisions together, section
1011.73(2) requires that the
School Board exercise its authority to levy additional millage under
section
1011.71(9) by resolution adopted at a regular meeting.
§
1011.73(2). Control of the wording of the substance and the ballot title
lies with the School Board. §
1011.73(4)(b). And the statute empowers
the School Board to direct the County Commissioners to "call an
election" on the matter. §
1011.73(2). The election can be "at any time,
except that not more than one such election shall be held during any 12-
month period." Id. Further, the election can only be held during a
general election. §
1011.73(3). Finally, the School Board is responsible
for the associated costs. §
1011.73(7). Reading section
1011.73(2) in
context with the School Board's constitutional and statutory rights and
obligations, it is apparent that the School Board's directive to the County
Commissioners necessarily includes the date of the election and that the
County...
