Court rules in favor of Brevard County Commission, sheriff over critical needs charter cap
Brevard County will not have to cut some $25 million from its budget next year, as a result of a court ruling filed Thursday.
Then-Brevard County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller Scott Ellis sued the County Commission in 2019, contending the county increased property tax rates targeted for the Brevard County Sheriff's Office by more than it should have because the county misinterpreted a provision of the County Charter.
The charter provision ― which was approved by county voters in 2008 with 73.12% support ― generally limits the amount the county can increase property tax revenues to the lesser of 3% or the rate of inflation.
However, the commissioners can surpass that cap if four of five agree there is a "critical need" to do so.
That's what commissioners did in 2019 for the Brevard County Sheriff's Office's special municipal services taxing unit budget for the 2019-20 budget year. The BCSO said it had a critical need because it needed more money for school resource officers, pay raises to recruit and retain deputies, vehicles and other equipment. The increase above the charter cap amounted to $942,309.
The following year, the commission then used that budget to calculate how much it could raise in tax revenue for the sheriff's budget for 2020-21. But Ellis' suit argued that the county should have based its increase on what the money for the sheriff's budget would have been without the critical needs increase.
Ellis argued that the county should have subtracted the $942,309 critical needs increase from 2019-20 before calculating the allowable increase for 2020-21 because the critical need finding is only "valid for a single budget year," under the county charter.
There also were previous critical needs determinations by the County Commission related to the county's 2016-17 budget for its general fund and for two road and bridge municipal services taxing unit.
Court of Appeal ruling:Brevard County clerk of courts gets another chance to challenge charter cap interpretation
Circuit Court Judge Robert Segal sided with the county's interpretation, as presented by County Attorney Morris Richardson, saying there is nothing specific in the county charter that requires such a calculation as Ellis contended, and that the "single budget year" language in the charter refers only to the vote on the critical needs finding, not to the tax revenue increase.
Had Segal ruled in the clerk of courts' favor, the county could have been forced to cut some $25 million in revenue for the upcoming 2023-24 budget year that begins Oct. 1, based on the county having to roll back the tax revenue it could collect over previous years related to the two sets of critical needs votes.
Current Brevard County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller Rachel Sadoff ― who took up the case after Ellis did not seek reelection in 2020 ― said she is grateful for the clarity provided by the judgment, and said there are no plans to appeal the decision.“The intent was to have clarification on the language in the charter cap," after the clerk's office and the county had different readings of the charter. Sadoff said. "The court has given that now."
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“To me, there’s no winner and loser,” Sadoff said.
Segal's order addressed one of three counts in Sadoff's lawsuit, with two others pending. But, based on his ruling and the fact that Sadoff does not plan to appeal it, the others are expected to come out in favor of the county's interpretation as well.
Tyler Vazquez is the Brevard County and North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-917-7491 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez
Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Court sides with Brevard, sheriff in tax cap dispute with clerk of court
