Pinellas County Case

Improved Essays
Haoyu Zhao
PUP432
10.15.2015
Case Brief Contractors And Builders Association Of Pinellas County V. City Of Dunedin
Background Context
Until the 20th century, the general law in Florida stipulated that local governments could only obtain funds from public revenues as they had no authority to taxes. The local government made the realization that these funds were insufficient for running the everyday affairs of the growing county. For this reason, the county turned to private sources of revenue such as revenue obtained from impact fees for use in the expansion of infrastructure. The local government was forced to do this in order to meet the needs of the growing population (Marshall and Rothenberg 53). The proposal of impact fees
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The State of Florida placed an ordinance that would require land owners and contractors to contribute for expansion of infrastructure in form of impact fees. All this was done in order to avoid defraying this cost to the public funds set aside for other activities. During this year, landowners and contractors were supposed to contribute $325 for water connection and $375 for sewer connection. The State of Florida appeared in court on behalf of all the property holders within the County of Pinellas. The intervening appellees consisted of local contractors, other people such as Robert Johnson, Fred Vowinkel and contractors who joined to form one brief called the Contractors and Builders Association. The Contractors and Builders Association filed a suit against the State of Florida seeking an injunctive relief over the impact fees imposed on …show more content…
After an in-depth analysis of the evidence, it was clear that certain ordinances were defective as the city attempted to collect the funds in an unconstitutional manner. However, this decision was later reverted and the contributions were found to be legal only that the State was required to have a clear outline of how they were using the funds. The court’s position on the City of Dunedin v Contractors and Builders Association of Pinellas County (1975) was based on the fact that exactions from a developer for the improvement of social facilities were not against the constitution as long as the circumstances were appropriate. The court provided a further analogy to show that the impact fees charged by the local municipal would not be compared to fees levied by private institutions. At the same time, a private institution would still levy the fees of expansion of sewerage and water services to the population that creates the demand. Using this argument, the court pointed out that it was permissible for the local government to proceed and levy these taxes to the users of the

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