TAMPA, Fla. — If you've shopped in Tampa during the past couple of years, you've paid an extra 1 percent sales tax to go toward improving roads and buses.
But after the Florida Supreme Court determined the voter-backed levy was unconstitutional, what comes next? Hillsborough County commissioners are trying to figure that out.
The commission voted Wednesday to support refunding the more than $500 million it already has collected. In 2022, voters again will be asked to consider whether to pay the higher sales tax.
County leaders will work with the Department of Revenue, which indicated to the staff since it's an unprecedented situation, it will likely go to court to help figure out refund disbursements.
In an opinion posted last month, Florida's Supreme Court said the way the amendment restricted where the money brought in by the tax could be spent was unconstitutional.
In November 2018, Hillsborough voters approved the 30-year, one-cent increase in the county's sales tax to specifically pay for transportation improvement. Then, in December of that year, Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White filed a lawsuit challenging that tax.
In his 2018 lawsuit, White argued the tax would take power away from the County Commission, making it unconstitutional.
The citizen-led All for Transportation group backed the tax in 2018, saying county commissioners were not doing enough to address the county's transportation problems.
- What to know about Tampa's federal COVID-19 vaccine site
- School resource officer fired after body-camera catches him saying N-word, Tampa police say
- Patients 'extremely vulnerable to COVID-19' will need this form to get a vaccine
- Tampa family adopts baby born with 'half a heart'
- Tom Brady appears on the Late Late Show with James Corden
- Am I eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida?
►Breaking news and weather alerts: Get the free 10 Tampa Bay app
►Stay In the Know! Sign up now for the Brightside Blend Newsletter