Florida lawmakers have stepped in to settle a tug-of-war over school money, making it crystal clear that when voters sign off on extra school property taxes, that cash is supposed to land in classrooms, not in collection fees. The fix follows a high-profile legal fight in Sarasota County and arrives just as districts across the state are locking in their budgets for the coming school year.
What the law does
House Bill 7031E, approved during a recent special legislative session, tweaks several tax statutes so that commissions on ad valorem collections do not eat into voter-approved school millage revenue. In other words, the extra tax money voters approve for schools is no longer up for grabs to cover collection costs. According to The Florida Senate, the governor signed the bill at the end of June, and it took effect last Wednesday.
How Sarasota’s lawsuit pushed the change
The new law grew out of a lawsuit filed by the Sarasota County School Board after the county tax collector began taking a 2% commission from a voter-approved 1-mill school tax. District officials say that move siphoned off money they had promised to put into classrooms, triggering layoffs and cuts to school programs. According to filings in the case, the tax collector had diverted more than $2 million before the dispute landed in court, as detailed in Your Observer.
Statewide reach
Lawyers for the Sarasota board say discovery in the case revealed that similar commissions were being withheld in other counties, too. The new statutory language is designed to stop that practice across Florida. In a statement, the legal team behind the lawsuit said the reform could preserve “tens of millions” of dollars each year for classroom needs, according to Shumaker LLP.
What local leaders said
Daniel DeLeo, lead counsel for the Sarasota County School Board, told Tampa Bay 28, "We were told every single penny of that money was gonna be used in the classroom for teachers and students." Sarasota residents and school officials have greeted the change with cautious relief. According to Tampa Bay 28, the station asked the Sarasota County Tax Collector's office for comment and did not receive a response.
Legal fallout and next steps
Because lawmakers stepped in before the Sarasota case reached a final ruling, a local judge has temporarily halted further action in the lawsuit while the court and the parties sort through what the new statute means for the pending claims. As The Sarasota News Leader reports, the bill now specifies that “the commissions on the amount of taxes from school millages shall be paid by the board of county commissioners,” and that a tax collector may waive the commission only with written notice to the county commission.
For Sarasota and other districts that raised alarms about shrinking referendum revenue, the most immediate impact is financial: more of the voter-approved money should be available for teachers, school safety and classroom programs. The next hurdle is administrative. Local officials will have to make sure county payments and any commission waivers are clearly documented so the promised windfall ends up where voters were told it would go, instead of getting lost in the fine print.
