‘I need to update my resume’: Reaction pours in after vote to block millage referendum

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The battle over education dollars took an unexpected turn, with one of the state’s largest school districts planning to pursue legal action after the Hillsborough County commission blocked a millage rate increase referendum from going on this year’s ballot.

Teachers said they’re losing hope.

“My first reaction was, I need to update my resume,” Robinson High School teacher Mitchell Smithey said. “Every time we feel like something is going positive for education, somebody comes along and kicks dirt on us and makes our lives harder.”

Students said they’re running out of time.

“We cannot wait for this for 2026,” said Hope Brillhart, a junior at H.B. Plant High School. “What the commissioners did was move the millage referendum to 2026. I’ll be out of high school in 2026.”

Parents told News Channel 8 they’re worried for the future.

“We have some wonderful people but because Hillsborough doesn’t pay competitively with some of the other counties, we’re losing people,” William Haynes said.

Many are calling it an unprecedented move, as Hillsborough County commissioners voted to remove a property referendum from the 2024 ballot and instead push it off until the 2026 election.

That decision took $117 million off the table that, if approved by voters, would have gone toward increasing teacher pay.

“This is an attack on public education, and I will not stand for it,” Superintendent Van Ayers said.

Ayers called the decision ‘unprecedented,’ saying county commissioners superseded the authority of the school board.

“It’s a passthrough is what that is,” he said. “It’s their administrative duty.”

“Our school board voted in April to have this on the ballot in November,” Ayers said. “Our stance, they have no right to postpone that at all.”

Ayers is seeking approval to take legal action, pointing to 2021 Florida statute 1011.73.

He said the commission had no right to postpone the vote.

Commissioner Joshua Wostal, however, disagrees.

“I did the thing I think people do the least, and I just went and read it,” Wostal said. “I took it to the appropriate officials and they agreed that the legislature was very intentional about giving them authority, but also giving us the authority to decide when is the best time.”

Wostal defended his vote Wednesday, saying he’s trying to protect taxpayers.

“Hundreds of emails come in, in fact, of people talking about record high inflation, record high property taxes, record high property insurance that they can’t literally afford to live anymore,” he said. “Hillsborough County resides more fixed-income senior citizens than almost any other county in the state of Florida and their property taxes are an increased cost of living they just can’t afford.”

“Often times they say that government doesn’t take the hard actions upon themselves, and I believe today we did the right things for the citizens of Hillsborough County,” Wostal said.

And if that hurts public education?

“Hillsborough County is the number one county in the U.S., I believe, for homeschooling,” Wostal said. “We have many wonderful charter schools.”

“Charter schools at which you can go and see a 2019 study from the legislature that outperform public schools, and I believe that’s a wonderful solution to family and children’s education,” he said.

The Hillsborough County School Board will hold a special-called School Board Meeting on Tuesday, July 23, at 2 p.m. in the board auditorium located at 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Ayers will ask school board members to authorize school district attorneys to seek legal action to try to get the millage referendum back on the Nov. 5, 2024, ballot.

The school board will allow 30 minutes of public comment, limited to the agenda item only.

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