TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County commissioners passed a motion Tuesday to follow a judge's order placing a property tax referendum benefiting Hillsborough County Schools back on the November ballot.
However, the board also left the door open to reverse that position if an appeals court grants a stay or reverses the lower court's decision.
In July, commissioners voted 4-3 along partisan lines to delay that referendum to increase teacher and staff pay until 2026 — a move school officials took legal issue with immediately.
“Our stance? They have no right to postpone that at all,” Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Van Ayres said at the time. “They are superseding, they are trying to take away the power of the School Board."
But that’s not the way Commissioner Joshua Wostal sees it.
“This is a hill that I am going to die on,” Wostal said. “I do not believe that a judge can order duly elected officials and violate their first amendment right and dictate whether or not they should vote up or down on an item.”
Commissioner Harry Cohen disagreed with Wostal.
“I have heard some of these arguments about separations of powers and all of these things and I just think that this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way that our system works,” Cohen said. “And the way that the law works.”
Ultimately commissioners voted 6-1 approving a motion to comply with the judge's order but left room to quickly undo that vote.
“It provides that that approval ceases to be effective should the second district either reinstate the automatic stay, pending appeal, otherwise stay the order - pending the appeal - or reverse the order on appeal,” said the commission’s outside legal counsel, Samuel Salario.
Commissioner Pat Kemp, who wanted the board to accept the court ruling and move on rather than continue to appeal voiced frustration with some of her colleagues.
Kemp criticized fellow commissioners for approving a contract with outside legal counsel that could cost county taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. Kemp also made a motion to end the legal appeal and simply agree to place the referendum back on the ballot for voters to decide upon, but that motion was defeated with a party-line vote.
“This is all based on a 4 to 3 vote, and I will remind everybody that Florida is 50th and the nation when it comes to teacher pay,” Kemp said.
The appeals court had asked the Hillsborough School Board to submit its legal response by noon Tuesday and has said it plans to move quickly, acknowledging the urgency of the case with the election date rapidly approaching.