People Against Tax Revenue Mismanagement, Inc. v. County of Leon, 77572
| Decision Date | 30 May 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 77572,77572 |
| Citation | 583 So.2d 1373 |
| Parties | PEOPLE AGAINST TAX REVENUE MISMANAGEMENT, INC., et al., Appellants, v. COUNTY OF LEON, Florida, Appellee. 583 So.2d 1373, 16 Fla. L. Week. S579 |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Kenneth Muszynski, Tallahassee, for appellants.
Herbert W.A. Thiele, County Atty. and Michael L. Rosen and Susan L. Turner of Holland & Knight, Tallahassee, for appellee.
We have on appeal on order of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit validating a $60 million bond issue for construction of a new jail and other infrastructure improvements in Leon County. Jurisdiction is mandatory. Art. V, Sec. 3(b)(2), Fla. Const.
This case comes to Court after much earlier litigation. The People Against Tax Revenue Mismanagement, Inc. (PATRM), is a corporation created about two weeks after passage of an optional sales tax in a local referendum in 1989 in Leon County. In this referendum, the voters approved a local-option sales tax as the revenue source securing the $60 million bond issue. PATRM's purpose is to scrutinize the workings of Leon County government, including matters associated with the local-option tax and the referendum election.
The day of its formation in 1989, PATRM filed suit against the Leon County Canvassing Board seeking an order setting aside the result of the referendum. PATRM alleged that Leon County officials and others had engaged in a variety of improprieties, including the misuse of public funds, employees, and facilities to support passage of the local-option tax, and the use of misleading ballot language. However, the trial court entered a summary judgment against PATRM on grounds it had failed to name the proper party. 1 This holding was upheld on appeal, and PATRM did not seek further review. People Against Tax Revenue Mismanagement, Inc. v. Leon County Canvassing Bd., 573 So.2d 31 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990).
Subsequently, PATRM amended the petition to name the City of Tallahassee and the County of Leon as defendants. However, PATRM voluntarily dismissed its complaint and then filed a "Motion for Writ of Certiorari as Ancillary Relief" in its then-pending appeal from the canvassing-board case. The First District characterized this document in the following terms:
In broad terms, appellants take issue with the trial court's attempt to schedule pretrial proceedings and to set the case for trial on the issues raised against the City and the County, who are neither parties to this appeal, nor parties to any action now pending below. After review, we find the motion to be totally frivolous.... We grant appellee's motion for an award of attorney fees and costs.
Id. at 33-34. PATRM also filed a suggestion that the judges of the First District should recuse themselves from the case, which was denied. Id. at 32.
During the course of the proceedings, PATRM filed a long series of motions and related papers attempting to disqualify judges of the Second Circuit from hearing the trial-level proceedings. These acts culminated in a petition for writ of prohibition filed in the First District. This petition was denied after the First District found the claims legally insufficient. People Against Tax Revenue Mismanagement, Inc. v. Reynolds, 571 So.2d 493 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990).
When the bond validation proceedings below were commenced, Leon County named PATRM as a defendant. 2 In this role, PATRM again raised many of the claims it previously had argued in the earlier proceedings discussed above. These form the central issues in this appeal.
PATRM argues that this Court cannot now validate the $60 million bond issue Second, while there are many vague allegations of impropriety, we find that most are very poorly substantiated in this record. Even in their totality, the facts supporting these allegations clearly are insufficient to require invalidation of the bond issue.
because of "serious questions over the validity of the sales tax election." However, this argument rests on two assumptions not supported by either the law or the record of this case. First, PATRM's brief consistently assumes that a bond validation proceeding is not a proper vehicle for addressing the validity of a bond referendum. For the reasons expressed more fully below, we do not agree with this assumption
The most weighty of PATRM's allegations appears to be the fact that local governmental agencies used public funds and public resources to mount an informational campaign regarding the referendum. In this campaign, the agencies advocated that the optional tax was needed to remedy problems at the county jail and to meet local infrastructure needs such as the building of new or widened roadways. One county commissioner gave the following statement under cross-examination by PATRM's attorney:
There were some critical issues facing this community that needed to be addressed, the community needed to know what those issues were, and it was important that we got that information out to the community and that we made the choices clear to the community.
Other witnesses testified that county office equipment was used in this campaign and that many county employees assisted. At the proceeding below, PATRM's counsel argued that such acts were improper because they violated the "neutral forum" of the election.
Such a position, however, is tantamount to saying that governmental officials may never use their offices to express an opinion about the best interests of the community simply because the matter is open to debate. A rule to that effect would render government feckless. One duty of a democratic government is to lead the people to make informed choices through fair persuasion. We recently saw an example of such persuasion in President Bush's arguments to the American people and his lobbying efforts regarding the war with Iraq. These acts came at a time of intense controversy, when Congress was preparing to take a crucial vote either to support or condemn the use of military force in the Middle East.
In much the same sense, local governments are not bound to keep silent in the face of a controversial vote that will have profound consequences for the community. Leaders have both a duty and a right to say which course of action they think best, and to make fair use of their offices for this purpose. 3 The people elect governmental leaders precisely for this purpose. While we agree with PATRM that such acts must not be abusive or fraudulent, we find nothing in the record to show that the limit was crossed here.
Similarly, we do not agree that the wording of the ballot language unfairly biased the electorate. According to the documents submitted by PATRM, the following statement appeared on the ballot:
OFFICIAL BALLOT
SALES TAX REFERENDUM
LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA
September 19, 1989
"TAKE CHARGE ... IT'S
YOUR FUTURE"
(LOCAL GOVERNMENT
INFRASTRUCTURE
SALES TAX)
Shall a one-cent local option sales tax for capital improvements be levied in Leon PATRM notes that the phrase "TAKE CHARGE ... IT'S YOUR FUTURE" was the campaign slogan used by persons who favored the tax. We agree that the use of a campaign slogan and the word "critical" reflect a slight lack of neutrality that should not be encouraged in ballot language. Government should never appear to be "shading" a ballot summary to favor one position or another.
County for a period of 15 years in order to construct critical capital improvements; specifically: a court-ordered jail, law enforcement capital projects, road and traffic improvements identified in the Tallahassee-Leon County Year 2010 Transportation Plan, and other road and traffic improvements?
However, the fact that some questionable language appears on the ballot is not itself enough to invalidate an entire referendum. Rather, the reviewing court must look to the totality of the ballot language, as such language would be construed by a reasonable voter. We have held that a court may interfere with the right of the people to vote on referendum issues only if the language in the proposal is clearly and conclusively defective. Askew v. Firestone, 421 So.2d 151, 154 (Fla.1982). Typically we have overturned an election because of defective ballot language where the proposal itself failed to specify exactly what was being changed, thereby confusing voters. Id.; Wadhams v. Board of County Comm'rs, 567 So.2d 414, 416-17 (Fla.1990). This especially is true if the ballot language gives the appearance of creating new rights or protections, when the actual effect is to reduce or eliminate rights or protections already in existence. Askew, 421 So.2d at 154.
Here, we see no similar defect. The ballot language clearly and unambiguously stated that the voters were imposing upon themselves "a one-cent local option sales tax for capital improvements" in Leon County.
The campaign slogan appearing on the ballot does no more than urge voters to "take charge ... it's your future." Some voters might "take charge" by voting yes; others easily might "take charge" by voting no. Thus, this particular language lacks neutrality only implicitly, because it was the campaign slogan of persons favoring the tax. Moreover, identifying capital projects as "critical" in no sense renders this ballot so confusing or imprecise as to be clearly and conclusively defective. It is not reasonable to conclude that the voters of Leon County were so easily beguiled by a few arguably non-neutral words, when the remainder of the ballot plainly stated that a "yes" vote meant new taxes would be imposed.
We therefore are constrained to approve the trial court's finding that there was nothing in "the referendum election with respect to the sales tax that constituted any breach of public trust nor was any action by those public bodies affirmed by any fraud on the electorate or gross wrongdoing or with any substantial violations of law."
PATRM also contends that the trial judge below erred in not joining the Leon County Canvassing...
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