HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Canvassing Board has certified the first unofficial results for the 2022 Primary Election Thursday evening.
In Florida, the law requires a machine recount to be conducted if any race or issue would be defeated by .5% or less of the total votes cast for that race or issue. This means board members ordered recounts for the following races:
- County Court Judge Group 14
- School Board of Hillsborough County Millage Election
The recount is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Friday at the Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center and is open to the public.
Following the machine recount, a manual recount will be ordered if the second set of unofficial results show that a candidate or issue was defeated by .25% or less of the votes cast.
Leaders say the official results will be certified no later than Aug. 30. Results can be found by clicking here.
The one-mil referendum for Hillsborough County Schools is positioned to generate about $146 million annually for schools in the county, largely targeted toward increasing salaries for teachers and staff. It's also meant to expand art, music, physical education and workforce education programs.
Hillsborough County Superintendent Addison Davis said if the new property tax is not passed, then the school district will continue to expand the issue of the teacher shortage within the county's public schools.
"We're facing a national crisis related to being able to fill [teaching] positions every single day, but from our school district perspective, we will continue to be relentless in our efforts to be able to be champions for children," Davis said previously.
Public schools will eventually have to make certain decisions to address the teacher shortage issue, but the county currently has more questions than answers on that topic, especially if the referendum does not get passed, according to Davis.
Public schools in Hillsborough County received money from additional tax revenue as property values have gone up more than 28% in Hillsborough County year-over-year.
The county property appraiser says, locally, Hillsborough County Schools will get more than $58 million in additional tax revenue this year. That's on top of the tax revenue coming from the state.
However, with the referendum, all of the money generated will only stay in the county.
The property tax demands an additional dollar for every $1,000 of real estate value for people who live in Hillsborough County. In other words, if a home is assessed at $200,000, the property owner pays $175 after Florida's Homestead Exemption is applied.