HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Hillsborough County Commissioners have voted to push back against a judge’s decision rejecting a transportation sales tax referendum because of the way it was worded to voters.
Some people have already received their ballots in the mail, but on Thursday evening, commissioners had to discuss if they wanted to appeal the decision to reject the tax referendum.
Hillsborough neighbors sounded off against the Board of Commissioners at an emergency meeting to decide how to proceed.
“What you did was intentionally mislead the voters,” one speaker at the meeting said.
But some residents want commissioners to fight back against the judge’s decision with an appeal so that the referendum can stay on the ballot.
“Appeal the decision and allow voters the opportunity to vote,” another speaker said.
In a 5-2 vote, commissioners decided to appeal the decision, and hire a special appellate counsel to help them fight against the decision when the judge officially enters her order.
“The ballots are already out. Early voting begins October 24th,” Commission Chair Kimberly Overman said. “Hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to address this, appeal this, and obtain a 'stay.' But either way, the goal here today is to give our voters the opportunity to choose how they’d like transportation to be invested in."
A county attorney says when the judge files her order and they appeal, a “stay” will automatically go into effect. He says it works kind of like a “time out” to keep everything, as is, through the review process.
County officials say, as long as the “stay” is in place, residents will get to vote on the referendum.