STATE, EX REL. J. J. HOUSTON,
v.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY: T. N. HENDERSON, AS CHAIRMAN, FRED W. BALL, NICK C. NUCCIO, B. B. BADGER, AND EARL W. SIMMONS, AS AND CONSTITUTING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, AND CHARLES E. CULBREATH, AS CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, AND EX-OFFICIO CLERK OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SAID COUNTY
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The Florida Supreme Court upheld Chapter 18406, Acts of 1937, permitting Hillsborough County to adopt voting machines, and validated voting machine certificates of indebtedness issued without additional popular vote approval, rejecting challenges to both the constitutionality of the enabling statute and the financing mechanism.
Chapter 18406, Acts of 1937 is constitutionally valid as a local law properly submitted to and approved by referendum vote. Voting machine certificates of indebtedness do not require additional voter approval because the voter approval for adopting voting machines implicitly authorized the extension of county credit necessary to purchase them on deferred payments.
“The vote on the adoption or not of voting machines was to all intents and purposes a vote on the extension of the county's credit to purchase them since their immediate use was required and the County Commissioners' were authorized to confer this authority on the County, and being so, no further vote of the people was necessary.”
Establishes that voter approval for voting machine adoption implicitly authorized the credit extension for their purchase, eliminating the need for separate bond approval vote.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHillsborough County commissioners adopted resolutions in 1935 and 1938 to purchase 93 voting machines from Shoup Voting Machine Corporation, issue vot…
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— On September 15, 1938, this Court Issued its alternative writ of mandamus directed to the Board of County Commissioners and the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County commanding them to assemble and rescind three certain resolutions adopted by them, to-wit; resolution dated November 15, 1935, whereby they entered into a contract with Shoup Voting Machine Corporation for the purchase of ninety-three .voting machines- for Hills-borough County, resolution dated June 24, 1938, authorizing the issuance of voting machine certificates of indebtedness in payment for said voting machines and a resolution dated September 8, 1938, approving the budget of Hillsborough County for the taxable year 1938 whereby they imposed a certain tax to pay interest and principal of said voting-machine certificates of indebtedness. The cause now comes on to be heard on demurrer to the alternative writ.
Two primary questions’ are urged for consideration. The first pertains to the Constitutional validity of Chapter 18406, Acts of 1937, and the second challenges the legality of the vpting machine certificates of indebtedness.
.Chapter 18406, Acts of 1937, is a,local law relating to the adoption of voting machines i’n Hillsborough. County. . .The *505title and body of the act have been examined and we do not consider either vulnerable to the assault made on it. The basis of classification set up in the act has been repeatedly approved by this court. It was submitted to the people of Hillsborough County and was approved in a referendum vote as required by Section Twenty-one of Article Three of the Constitution. The Act is in pari materia with Chapter 13893, Acts of 1929, as amended by Chapter 18405, Acts of 1937, and should be read in connection with them. It makes no change in the law as expressed in these acts except that it permits Hillsborough County to vote on the question of adopting voting machines in that county. We find no infirmity in the title.
It is next contended that the voting machine certificates of indebtedness constitute bonds and should have been approved by a vote of the people as required by Section 6 of Article IX of the Constitution.
AVe think this contention is likewise without merit. In addition to authorizing Hillsborough County to vote on the question of adopting voting machines Chapter 18406, Acts of 1937, authorizes the County Commissioners to effect arrangements whereby voting machines could be purchased. AVe must assume that the people were on notice that the purchase of voting machines for a county like Hillsborough would mean a large outlay of public funds, that such an outlay was not in hand at the time and that if approved, provision would have to be made for purchasing them on deferred payments. The method a'dopted by the County Commissioners is that in common use.
The vote on the adoption or not of voting machines was to all intents and purposes a vote on the extension of the county’s credit to purchase them since their immediate u^e was required and the County Commissioners' were authorized to confer this authority on the County, and being so, *506no further vote of the people was necessary. This question is concluded against the contention of Relator by Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549, 169 So. 39.
The’ demurrer to tlie alternative writ is sustained with leave to amend within thirty days if so desired.
Whitfield, Buford and Chapman, J. J., concur.
Ellis, C. J., and Brown, J., dissent.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
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Posey v. Wakulla Cnty., 148 Fla. 115 (Fla. 1941)…ot require an approving vote of the freeholders. The following cases conclude this question: Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549, 169 So. 39; State ex rel. Galloway vs. Henderson, 134 Fla. 731, 184 So. 654; State, ex rel. Houston v. Hillsborough County, 136 Fla. 503, 183 So. 157. The terms of the resolution of [*120] the county commissioners bring the instant case within the purview of those last cited. In Tapers v. Pichard, swpra, this court held that the Board of County Commissioners were without authority t…
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City OF Parker v. State, 992 So. 2d 171 (Fla. 2008)…ment, this Court held that the 1930 referendum requirement did not apply to certain forms of local obligations, which were not, in fact, bonds. Posey v. Wakulla County, 148 Fla. 115, 3 So. 2d 799 (1941); State ex rel. Houston v. Hillsborough County, 136 Fla. 503, 183 So. 157 (1938); Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549, 169 So. 39 (1936). This Court explained its distinction between bonds and other obligations as follows: As a general rule, we have said that if proposed certificates are secured by a pledge of a…
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State v. Gordon, 138 Fla. 312 (Fla. 1939)…to this section of the Act but the notes are payable within one year from issue and this Court has repeatedly held that such notes do not constitute bonds. Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549, 169 So. 39; State, ex rel., Houston v. Hillsborough County, 136 Fla. 503, 183 So. 157. It is next contended that Section 14 of House Bill 1145 violates Section 16 of Article III of the Constitution of Florida in that the title does not show that a special registration of freeholders is required preliminary to any electi…
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- Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549 (Fla. 1936)