Taxpayers Rejoice!: Florida Taxing Authorities Dealt Serious Blows in Tax Cases

The Florida Department of Revenue and local taxing authorities suffered two significant losses within the past week. In one case, Crossings at Fleming Island Cmty. Dev. Dist. v. Echeverri, No. SC07-1556, the Supreme Court of Florida ruled that "a property appraiser does not have standing in his or her official capacity to raise the constitutionality of a statute as a defense in a tax suit filed by a taxpayer." In another case, the First District Court of Appeal ruled in Marcus and Patricia Ogborn, etc. v. Jim Zingale, Dept. of Revenue, 1st DCA Case No. 07-1831, that the trial court erred when it characterized a taxpayer's facial constitutional challenge as an as-applied constitutional challenge and consequently dismissed the taxpayer's case as untimely pursuant to Florida Statute Section 202.23.

These cases are significant to Florida taxpayers in that they establish that a taxpayer may attack a taxing statute as facially unconstitutional and, in that instance, will not be subject to the limitations of the tax refund procedure established in Fla. Stat. Sec. 202.23. Additionally, a property appraiser may not raise the constitutionality of a statute granting a tax exemption as a defense in a lawsuit brought by a taxpayer for failing to provide the taxpayer with the exemption granted by the statute.

These issues are closely related to the tax issues the parties faced in the Sun Aviation and Paris Air cases, in which the property appraiser for Indian River County sought to deny a tax exemption to two airport FBOs (Fixed Base Operators). The FBOs sued the property appraiser and he raised the defense that the tax exemption was unconstitutional. The Fourth District Court of Appeal held that the property appraiser had failed to preserve that issue and therefore did not address it. However, the Court ruled in favor of the FBOs on the basis that the FBOs were exempted from paying certain property taxes under the statute.

Taxpayers should rejoice because these cases send a clear message to taxing authorities that they cannot exceed the scope of their authority merely because tax revenues have declined with a troubled economy. Perhaps now our state and local tax officials will get back to the business of serving the citizens and businesses of Florida rather than seeking new and "innovative" ways of squeezing yet another drop of tax revenue out of them.

Medevac Operations Under Scrutiny in Wake of Flagstaff Crash

The NTSB is stepping up its investigation of medevac services in the wake of a crash last Sunday in Flagstaff, Arizona, that killed 6 people and seriously injured one. According to the The New York Times, NTSB chairman, Mark Rosenker, says he's "very concerned" that this was the tenth accident involving medical airlift aircraft this year. "We are going to try very hard to make sure we understand exactly what happened here, determine the probable cause and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again," Rosenker said.

According to the New York Times report, Rosenker said that the NTSB is worried about the safety record of medevac services and will take appropriate action to improve safety. "We are very concerned about that . . . we are going to try very hard to make sure we understand exactly what happened here, determine the probable cause and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again," Mr. Rosenker said at a news conference.

Anyone familiar with the fallout from increased accident rates experienced by parachute jumping operations, air charter companies, air ambulance companies, commercial airlines, and air tour operators, knows that it is only a matter of time before the FAA steps in to propose new rules based on the NTSB recommendations. If experience is any indication, it is likely that we will see an NPRM on medevac operations within the next 12 months. Now would be a good time for the medevac industry to step forward and propose its own rules if it is to stem the tide of new regulations. Unfortunately, it may be too little too late.