Class Action For Refund of Illegally Collected AFT Tax Dollars Refiled In Leon County

 

Tampa, Fl 
From: Eye On Tampa Bay

Posted by: Sharon Calvert

Change of venue for Class Action lawsuit requesting refund of unlawfully collected AFT tax proceeds

 The class action lawsuit requesting a remedy for the over $500 MILLION of illegally collected All for Transportation (AFT) transit tax in Hillsborough County has been refiled in Leon County.

The Florida Department of Revenue, located in Leon County, was always a Defendant in the case. The class action Complaint filed by the Plaintiff in Leon County states that despite pending legal challenges to AFT, the Florida Department of Revenue collected the AFT tax, enforced the AFT tax, charged administrative fees and distributed the tax proceeds minus the admin fees to Hillsborough County.

The Plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit are asking for a refund of all taxes collected under the unlawful AFT transit tax charter amendment.

Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Rex Barbas's illogical lower court ruling kept the AFT tax itself in place, while throwing out all the appropriations and regulatory gibberish. Barbas's marked through ruling left the AFT transit tax charter amendment impossible to comprehend and grammatically challenged. 

The Florida Supreme Court overwhelmingly overruled Barbas and threw out AFT's transit tax in its entirety as unlawful. Barbas could not oversee the class action lawsuit requesting a remedy because his ruling was so flawed. Barbas's flawed ruling in June 2019 allowed the unlawful transit tax to keep being collected until March 2021.

A change of venue to Leon County, for the class action requesting a refund of all unlawful tax proceeds, can minimize conflict of interest, bias or taintedness that could exist in Hillsborough County.

A remedy should either refund the money directly back to the residents of Hillsborough County, or institute a tax holiday reducing the county sales tax rate to 6.5% until the AFT tax money unlawfully collected is depleted.

Hillsborough County residents were victims of an illegal tax hike referendum perpetrated by All for Transportation, money was unlawfully taken from them for over 2 years and they deserve a fair and equitable remedy.

We hope that remedy will occur with the class action refiled in Leon County.

Posted by Sharon Calvert at 11:02 AM 

    

This post is contributed by EYE ON TAMPA BAY. The views expressed in this post are the blog publisher's and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher of Bay Post Internet.

 Cross Posted with permission from: Eye On Tampa Bay