Tavares, FL - Jul. 10, 2010 - Almost 18 months ago, local taxpayer reformer Marilyn Bainter filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the formation of the North Lake County Hospital District. Currently, the District collects about $10-million in property taxes and splits it between the two big local hospitals, Waterman and Leesburg, without any rules on how the funds are to be spent, and no real accountability on where it actually is spent.
The next hearing is quickly coming up on Monday, July 18th at 1:30 pm in the Lake County Courthouse in Judge Singletary's courtroom. Come and hear the arguments - if the District is found to have violated the Florida Constitution, I am assuming it will be shut down until a public vote takes place (if at all). The hearing is in the Judicial Center. This is the building under construction. For your convenience, you can park in the parking garage and take the shuttle over to the courthouse.
In a nutshell, the Constitution says that special tax districts that collect taxes must be approved by taxpayers in a public vote.
However, the current tax district was formed by a merger of two separate districts, and one of them was never approved by taxpayers in a vote, and the merger also was not approved by a public vote.
So, Bainter is up against six different attorney groups representing the Hospital District, three
In my opinion, there was a back door deal between local County Commissioners (years ago), the District officers and local hospitals to push through the merger without following those pesky requirements to get a public vote.
So, they have had one hearing, then another was postponed, and now this one on July 18th may be the final hearing before the Judge makes a decision.
Many observers complained that the six defense attorney groups kept stalling and asking for postponements, so hopefully they have their act together and won't come up with more requests to delay the process.
ACTION REQUEST: So be there on July 18th at 1:30 pm to support Marilyn and the idea that tax districts need to be constitutionally approved by voters, not by backdoor deals.
vj
