Hillsborough Co. transportation surtax battle ends, no money for taxpayers

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A years-long battle over a 2018 1% transportation surtax for Hillsborough County to use has ended. Judge Rex Barbas, from the 13th Judicial Circuit, ruled against allowing taxpayers to request their money back from the tax, ending hopes for repayment.

In 2018, the county voted to charge a 1% surtax to fund transportation needs throughout Hillsborough. For Hillsborough voters, $562 million could have been returned, but that hope was dashed by Barbas. The 1% surtax had been in effect since January 2019.

“The Court finds that supplemental relief in the form of disposition of the surtax funds is neither necessary nor proper at this juncture in this venue,” Barbas ruled on March 25.

By court order, the case is now closed. The ruling will allow the county to pay for the transportation needs as intended, based upon a recent proviso written by Florida’s legislative leaders, House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson. The proviso, included in the state’s appropriations bill, would allow the county to use the funds by depositing them in the state’s Discretionary Sales Surtax Clearing Trust Fund.

The section is called the “Hillsborough County Transportation Tax-New Back of Bill Language” and allows the funds to be used for the purposes voters approved in 2018. In this final ruling, previous court decisions were reversed. In February 2021, a Florida judge struck down the sales tax, which voters approved in 2018.

Barbas’ ruling was based on the lack of a “clear legal basis from which to fashion a remedy for the collection of the invalidated sales surtax.” As a result, the court denied providing supplemental relief.

Separately, a class-action lawsuit is still going through an appeals court in Leon County. It has not yet finished, and which way it will be decided is unknown.

Still, based on the decision in the 13th District by Judge Barbas, the use of the money is simply waiting on Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign the budget bill into law, releasing the funds for the intended use in Hillsborough County.