Judge to rule on Hillsborough schools millage referendum lawsuit by next week

The Hillsborough County School District sued the Hillsborough County Commission on July 23, days after the commission delayed a property tax referendum that the district says could raise an estimated $177 million to support students each year.

The suit was filed moments after the school board, in a 4-3 vote, granted Hillsborough schools Superintendent Van Ayres authority to take legal action after a surprise vote by the commission that moved the referendum from the November general election ballot to the 2026 midterm.

That lawsuit has now been fast-tracked, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported that  County Attorney Christine Beck told the commission that a judge will issue a ruling by Monday, Aug. 5.

The fracas started at the commission’s July 17 meeting, when Republican commissioner Joshua Wostal acknowledged the school board’s authority to place the initiative on the general ballot, but asked the commission’s legal counsel if it could change the timing of when the referendum should come before voters.

“While you do not have discretion of whether you can take action, we do believe that this board—that the only way to make sense of the statute—is to read it such that the board has some discretion as to timing,” Christine Beck—the County Attorney who represents and provides legal advice to the Board of County Commissioners, the County Administrator, and all County departments—said. “Reasonable discretion.”

Wostal’s motion to delay the vote passed 4-3 along party lines with Commissioners Ken Hagan, Christine Miller, Donna Cameron Cepeda voting yes. Commissioners Pat Kemp, Gwen Myers and Harry Cohen voted no.

Hours later, a heated Ayres told reporters that the vote was “without a doubt,” another attack on public schools. Citing Florida Statute 1011.73 on district millage elections, Ayres said it is the board of commissioners’ administrative duty to pass the referendum through after the school board approved it last April in a 5-2 vote.

Ayres argues that the millage—a school tax of sorts where property owners would pay $1 for every $1,000 in taxable value—is necessary to compete with surrounding counties that have the millage in place. Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee used funds raised via their millages to pay starting teachers as much as $57,000 a year. Hillsborough is lagging behind with starting salaries at $47,501. Teachers, Ayres said, are ditching Hillsborough for better pay elsewhere, leaving the district with more than 500 teacher vacancies.
The district’s lawsuit asks a judge to move on the stalled school tax—which would need to earn a 50%+1 majority vote for passage—by Aug. 13. That’s because the suit must be resolved by Aug. 20 to avoid missing the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections deadline to prepare the ballot.

The lawsuit adds that, “the commission attempts to deprive the voters of the right to consider the millage referendum and prevent the voters from determining whether Hillsborough County Public Schools should have this additional funding source to enhance teacher pay over the next two years.”

Last Friday on “The Skinny,” a public affairs program that airs Fridays on WMNF-Tampa 88.5-FM, candidates for the school board’s District 1 seat discussed their positions on the millage and lawsuit.

Incumbent Nadia Combs—who voted yes on the vote to give Ayres authority to sue the commission—reiterated the school board’s position.

“The county commission’s only job is to officially transmit the ballot language to the supervisor of elections. So the idea to change the date is really an attack on democracy, because it’s not allowing the voters to choose,” Combs said. “Basically you have four people who are interpreting the law, and they could push out this millage to the year 3000 if they wanted to. So it’s really unfortunate that we have people who are trying to politicize this instead of allowing the voters to decide what’s right.”

“We do need more teachers in Hillsborough County, but I don’t think taxing home pay homeowners is the way to do it,” Combs’ opponent, Julie Magill, told the station.
“I’m for putting it on for the voters to decide, but that’s already been done a couple times already, and it’s not passed,” Magill added, alluding to a measure that failed by less than 1% in the 2022 midterm elections.

Layla Collins, a third candidate in the race for Hillsborough County’s District 1 race for school board, did not respond to the station’s request for her to join the discussion.
Collins—has raked in more than two times as much money in contributions as Combs and more than $118,000 than Macgill—and is the wife of Republican State Sen. Jay Collins, a protege of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Windy March has reported Collins’ donors to be “Republican officeholders, political operatives, Tallahassee lobbyists and GOP-oriented political committees.”

DeSantis—who’s spent his time in the governor’s mansion using Florida schools in his ongoing culture wars—recently spoke out against the Hillsborough millage and said the district should manage its budget “properly.”

Combs called the governor’s comments “incredible disinformation,” adding that, “The one part he didn’t mention was that all the top seven districts, the large districts in the state of Florida, every one of them has that additional mill.”

Hillsborough is the third largest school district in the state of Florida, and serves 224,149 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2019 data puts it at the seventh-largest in the U.S.). Its $4.4 billion budget was approved last September. Only Miami Dade (328,589 students; $7 billion budget) and Broward (256,037 students; $5.6 billion budget) are larger than Hillsborough.

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