City of Miami v. McGrath
Decision Date | 11 July 2002 |
Docket Number | No. SC01-1562.,SC01-1562. |
Citation | 824 So.2d 143 |
Parties | CITY OF MIAMI, Appellant, v. Patrick McGRATH III, et al., Appellee. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Alejandro Vilarello and Maria J. Chiaro, Miami, FL; and Joseph H. Serota, Mitchell A. Bierman, and Christopher F. Kurtz of Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Pastoriza & Guedes, P.A., Miami, FL, for Appellant.
Thomas J. Korge and Christopher G. Korge of Korge & Korge, Coral Gables, FL; and Mark J. Heise and David Markarian of Heise Markarian Foreman, Miami, FL, for Appellees.
Robert A. Ginsburg, Miami-Dade County Attorney, and Jess McCarty, Assistant County Attorney, Miami, FL, for Miami-Dade County and Laureen Varga, Intervenors/Appellees.
We have on appeal a decision of the Third District Court of Appeal declaring invalid a state statute. See McGrath v. City of Miami, 789 So.2d 1168 (Fla. 3d DCA 2001). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), Fla. Const. Because we conclude that section 218.503(5)(a), Florida Statutes (1999), constitutes a special law authorizing the imposition of non-ad valorem taxes in violation of the Florida Constitution, we affirm the Third District's decision in this case.
In 1999,1 the Florida Legislature enacted section 218.503(5), which authorizes a municipality to impose a parking tax but restricts which municipalities may impose the tax as follows:
In July 1999, the City of Miami ("City") implemented the statute by passing an ordinance authorizing the levying of a parking tax, which became effective September 1, 1999.
Patrick McGrath, III, filed a complaint against the City, challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance and section 218.503(5)(a). McGrath claimed that the statute constitutes a special law passed under the guise of a general law, and thus is unconstitutional under article VII, sections 1(a) and 9(a), of the Florida Constitution.3 Miami-Dade County ("County"), and one of its employees, Laureen Varga, challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance and section 218.503(5)(a) in another case, and intervened as plaintiffs in this case.
The issue in this case is whether section 218.503(5)(a), which authorizes only certain municipalities to impose a parking tax, constitutes a special law in violation of the Florida Constitution. Section 218.503(5)(a) comes before this Court "clothed with a presumption of constitutionality," Department of Legal Affairs v. Sanford-Orlando Kennel Club, Inc., 434 So.2d 879, 881 (Fla.1983), and this Court's review of the Third District's decision is de novo. See Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Comm'n v. Caribbean Conservation Corp., Inc., 789 So.2d 1053, 1054 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001) ( ).
Rather than applying to all municipalities, the statute applies only to municipalities that have a resident population of 300,000 or more on April 1, 1999, and have been declared in a state of financial emergency pursuant to this statute within the previous two fiscal years. By virtue of the limiting date of April 1, 1999, only three municipalities—Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville4 —potentially qualify as being able to impose the parking tax.5 Thus, appellees contend that the statute is effectively no different than if those three municipalities had been identified by name in the statute.
The Florida Constitution allows a local government to impose a non-ad valorem tax only as authorized by general law. See art. VII, §§ 1(a), 9(a), Fla. Const. In other words, the Florida Constitution prohibits the Legislature from authorizing a local government from imposing a non-ad valorem tax by special law. We explained the purpose of the constitutional prohibition against the Legislature passing a special law authorizing municipalities to levy non-ad valorem taxes in Alachua County v. Adams, 702 So.2d 1253, 1254 (Fla.1997):
(Emphasis supplied.)6
In this case, it is undisputed that the City's parking tax constitutes a non-ad valorem tax that was authorized by the Legislature's passage of section 218.503(5)(a). Therefore, the only question in this case is whether section 218.503(5)(a) constitutes a special law. This Court has explained the distinction between general laws and special laws:
A law that operates universally throughout the state, uniformly upon subjects as they may exist throughout the state, or uniformly within a permissible classification is a general law. State ex rel. Landis v. Harris, 120 Fla. 555, 163 So. 237 (Fla.1934). We recognize that the legislature has wide discretion in establishing statutory classification schemes and that a law applying uniformly within a permissible classification is a general law. Shelton v. Reeder, 121 So.2d 145 (Fla.1960). A statute relating to a subdivision of the state, based upon proper distinctions and differences that inhere in or are peculiar or appropriate to a class, is a general law. Department of Legal Affairs v. Sanford-Orlando Kennel Club, Inc., 434 So.2d 879 (Fla.1983); Shelton. ... Statutes that employ arbitrary classification schemes are not valid as general laws. West Flagler; Shelton.
Department of Bus. Regulation v. Classic Mile, Inc., 541 So.2d 1155, 1157 (Fla.1989).
We then explained the definition of a special law:
To determine whether section 218.503(5)(a) constitutes a special law, we must decide whether the law is designed to operate upon particular municipalities through its restrictive classification system, and whether the classification in this case, which limits application of the statute to municipalities with over 300,000 residents on or before April 1, 1999, is arbitrary. In other words, we must determine whether this statute is "based upon proper distinctions and differences that inhere in or are peculiar or appropriate to a class," Classic Mile, 541 So.2d at 1157, or whether this statute is designed to operate upon or benefit only particular municipalities and thus is essentially no different than if the statute had identified the particular municipalities...
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