Hillsborough County, FL to appeal ruling allowing teacher pay referendum

Hillsborough's GOP-led commission doubled down in its fight to stall the school board's tax referendum, voting to appeal a court order to place it on the ballot.

Why it matters: It's the latest escalation in a feud between the two government entities, leaving teacher raises in limbo.

The vote lands two weeks before the printing deadline for the November ballot — and the county's appeal alone, if not expedited, endangers the referendum. Catch up quick: Commissioner Joshua Wostal (R) made a motion in July to punt the ballot referendum to 2026, citing "increases in the costs of inflation."

The school board then sued the commission. Earlier this month, a circuit court ruled that "commissioners have no discretion to choose a different date."

Circuit Judge Emily Peacock's order directed the commission to adopt a resolution no later than Aug. 13 to put the referendum before voters.

We finally got some new blood on the County Commission that's conservative to stand up against the entrenched leftists running this county into the ground. We have no media that exposes graft and corruption in the local government anymore. So the left is getting away with murder.

The grifting Hillsborough County Classroom Teacher's Association (a/k/a the "school board") naked grab for property owners to front $200 million in increased teachers pay. These creeps keep saying Hillsborough County teachers are the lowest paid in the nation.

Well the tax bill to property owners right now is 75 to 80 percent earmarked for education. This just keeps getting worse. It's not even being proposed as a use tax or a sales tax which might be more equitable. But no, it's aimed right at property owners. It's a property tax increase. Plain and simple.

Many Floridians also have incomes that do not fare well in national comparisons but that doesn't mean we all get to rip off the property owners to increase our incomes. This crap of the leftwing Florida special interests being allowed to do an end-run around the state legislature by getting a kakistocracy (the voters) to pass every leftist wet dream into law by the expediency of a "ballot initiative" MUST STOP.

The Florida Statutes are a bleeding leftwing mess as a result of this total abdication of the principles of representative government.

“Judge Emily Peacock’s order directed the commission to adopt a resolution no later than Aug. 13 to put the referendum before voters.”

Not sure how the judiciary can order the legislative branch to do a legislative action. Seems like a separation of powers issue.

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