Hernando commissioners plan to use tax money to drum up support for a referendum, while the School Board turns to a political action committee to raise funds for its campaign.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published November 28, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - Earlier this month, just three days after Hernando County commissioners budgeted up to $15,000 to promote their sales tax effort, an independent group established a political action committee to raise money privately in support of the school district's tax referendum.
The move highlights yet another difference in the two organizations' separate attempts to win voter approval for a half-percent sales tax on March 9.
Already, each has publicized different estimates of the money the tax would generate over 10 years. The commission has indicated it would use the revenue for vaguely defined "capital improvement projects," including but not limited to road repairs, while the School Board has said the money would pay for new school construction only.
School Board members, who used a PAC to push their 1998 sales tax campaign, said they did not like the idea of using tax revenue to promote their latest drive.
"Although it is apparently permissible by law, if we disclose to the public we are using public funds, to me it just runs contrary to the way things should go, because then people who are in opposition should use public funds to oppose the tax," said board vice chairman Jim Malcolm, a driving force behind the PAC.
He suggested that the notion of using taxpayer dollars to push for a new tax might anger residents who otherwise might favor the initiative.
"That's a problem we don't need," Malcolm said. "I don't want to cloud the issue with some sideshow."
On a more practical front, he continued, the formation of a grass roots organization forces the district to get folks outside the school system involved. That would clearly demonstrate whether the referendum has community backing.
In 1998, the Children First PAC raised $1,275 to advertise the school district's sales tax, according to records filed with the county Supervisor of Elections office. Malcolm figured the new group, Make Cents for Kids, would need about the same amount.
"For $1,500, why risk a multimillion-dollar initiative," he said.
Commissioners, by contrast, contended that the government should spend tax money to sell the sales tax. It was their idea, after all.
"The county is responsible to provide the facts," Commissioner Nancy Robinson said. "That obviously is a government function."
After setting the $15,000 budget as a maximum amount to be spent on a promotional campaign earlier this month, Robinson and her colleagues voted on Tuesday to cap spending at $13,000. That money will pay for newspaper advertising, printing informational brochures and mailing them to voters.
Commissioner Diane Rowden said the commission never considered setting up an outside political action committee. The consensus, she said, was that the county could find enough people and money to promote its sales tax without forming an organization.
She castigated the School Board, though, for working separately from the commission on the sales tax. And she suggested that any attempt to create a PAC for the county drive probably would have fallen short because the School Board got its up and running first.
"If you've got one group out there asking all these businesses to be part of their committee and then one comes right after, what do you think they're going to say?" Rowden asked. "I think we've been forced to be in a position to do it on our own."
Neither government is operating illegally. For the most part, each is simply following its lawyer's advice.
On the county side, senior assistant attorney Kurt Hitzemann advised commissioners that they have every legal right to urge voters to support their ballot question.
"The case law and attorney general opinions make it clear that an elected board can advocate for a certain position, and they can make fair use of taxpayer money to do that," Hitzemann said.
He pointed to a case decided by the Florida Supreme Court in 1991. Then, the justices rejected contentions that Leon County's sales tax referendum results were invalid because the county used tax money to pay for the campaign.
The group, People Against Tax Revenue Mismanagement, contended the county acted improperly because it 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," Chief Justice Leander Shaw Jr. wrote for the majority. "A rule to that effect would render government feckless."
Using that case, Hitzemann gave commissioners the legal green light to spend tax money on their campaign. Since he wasn't asked, though, he did not provide political advice on whether to do so.
At the school district, board attorney Karen Gaffney cautioned members in a memo and during a workshop that employees cannot advocate passage of the referendum while on duty, nor can their work time be used for advocacy.
Further, she said, the district cannot spend money on advocacy materials. It can, however, provide "information regarding capital needs and information regarding the sale(s) tax referendum."
She advised the board to set up the PAC to create and pay for any materials that support passage of the tax. That seemed prudent to board members, who also are active with the committee.
"You can play games and say we are going to take $15,000 out of our budget to "educate and inform,"' said John Druzbick, a board member and president of Make Cents for Kids. "That's not really what you're doing, though. So why intertwine the issues?"
