Commission blocking referendum concerns taxpayers, including a legal expert

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Van Ayres is preparing to hold a meeting Tuesday, July 23, to address taking legal action against the county commission.

“We’re going to stand up for students,” Ayres said. “We believe local voters should have the right to make this decision.”

A legal expert 8 On Your Side spoke with believes the community should be worried.

“I think that as citizens, we need to be concerned that the system who allows us to speak to a very important issue has been shut down,” Cooley Law School Professor Renalie DuBose said.

The school board wants a referendum on the November ballot, but the county commission decided on Wednesday to delay it until 2026.

Supporters of the referendum say this means teachers will have to endure two more years with some of the lowest salaries in the area.

“Hillsborough County is the 7th largest district in the nation with over 200,000 children going to school every day and we need to give every one of those children the best opportunity possible to have a high-class education,” DuBose said.

DuBose has a legal background, but also a 45-year-long background in public education.

“Typically, when we had referendums, when I was in Hillsborough, when I was in Orange, and when I was in Pasco County, the school board would vote, and once the school board would vote, they would take it to the county commission to put it up to a vote to the people,” DuBose said.

Many taxpayers wish they could have a vote in November.

Jesse Cote, a parent of a student in Hillsborough County Public Schools said,

“I feel like we should definitely have an option,” said Jesse Cote, a parent of a student in Hillsborough County Public Schools. “I think they should get paid more already as is. They’re already not getting paid enough for going to school and to do that job.”

Cote’s wife used to work as a teacher in Hillsborough County.

“They weren’t paying her enough already, so she is no longer a teacher,” he said.

The proposed referendum is a property tax increase that could provide $117 million to raise teacher and support staff salaries.

“My thinking is, whether you support it or not it should be on the ballot,” said Sara Rutledge, a Hillsborough County voter.

Some of the commissioners who voted to delay it say voters are already being squeezed by a tough economy and they don’t want to put two potential tax hikes on the same ballot.

“Let the voters make the decision what they want to do,” Rutledge said. “We’ve done it with so many other things. Why now? Why are you withholding this? That’s what I want to know. Why are you being shady about it?”

DuBose has the same question as several people in the community, except she points out that she’s been a social studies teacher for over a decade and also taught American History.

“Why are we afraid to let people vote?”

She said she doesn’t know what the school board can do about this because she can only recall it happening one other time.

“The superintendent thinks he has some alternatives,” DuBose said. “I’ve never known those to happen. Usually, we go to the county commission and they put it on the ballot for us.”

The only time DuBose remembers a referendum not passing, she said they got the commissioners to change their minds by advertising their referendum to impacted voters. That was in the 1990s.

“This past year, 10% of our teachers left the district because surrounding districts have a referendum,” DuBose said.

DuBose shared what the political consultant told them to do in the 90s to get the community’s attention.

“You need to go to moms and dads that put their children on a school bus every day,” she said. “Superintendent, you need to stand in large intersections like Dale Mabry with a sign and wave. Administrators you need to take a vacation day and go to school when mothers are having their PTA meetings. You need to go to your churches. You need to go to the YMCA with a sign and stand on the corner. We literally gave vacation days to stand and to talk to people and we got the referendum.”

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