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Governments can now breathe a sigh of relief and go back to planning redevelopment projects using tax incremental and other public financing as the Florida Supreme Court changed its mind on forcing municipalities to take such decisions to a referendum first.

The court decided in a 3-2 decision Thursday to reverse its September 2007 decision in Strand v. Escambia County that required municipalities to first get voter approval before committing ad valorem money toward bonds. Those municipalities typically used such bonds to finance redevelopment projects secured through future tax revenue.

In Thursday's ruling, the Supreme Court said referendums were not needed for such projects, which could help get some local projects moving swiftly again.

Justices R. Fred Lewis, who was appointed to the bench in 1998 by Gov. Lawton Chiles, and Peggy A. Quince were part of the dissenting minority. Justice Kenneth Bell, who announced last May he was resigning from the bench after five years of service, recused himself from the decision.

“The majority’s avoidance of this clear command perpetuates and expands a distortion of our fundamental organic law, leads us far beyond our prior precedent and denies the voters of this state their constitutional right to determine whether their local governments should issue long-term debt that is ‘payable from ad valorem taxation,’” Lewis wrote in the decision no fax payday loans. “The local government shell game, which is played to avoid the Florida voter, should not be sanctioned by this tribunal. Unfortunately, we have done so today by improperly expanding this game to the very capital projects addressed” by provisions in the state constitution.

The original court case was filed by Dr. Gregory L. Strand in 2006 against the Escambia County government after it authorized the issuance of up to $135 million in bonds for infrastructure improvements, including a four-lane road-widening project.

The case eventually landed at the Supreme Court which said that a referendum could be required if money generated by tax increment ,financing districts was being used for long-term projects of more than $1 million.

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