Florida agency sues 42 counties for allegedly flouting bond support ruling

The Florida PACE Funding Agency has filed suit against 42 Florida county tax collectors it says are flouting a Florida Supreme Court order to collect a tax supporting its municipal bonds.

At least $150 million bonds were issued in recent years and $5 billion was authorized.

A Florida Circuit Court ruled the bonds were valid in 2022 and the Florida Supreme Court affirmed that decision in December 2025.

The higher court ordered the tax collectors to follow the lower court's order to collect the environmental assessment fees supporting the bonds.

Since then, "42 county tax collectors, acting in concert statewide, continue to refuse to perform the very ministerial duties the final judgment adjudicated," PACE told the State Supreme Court earlier this week.

The failure to collect the fees threatens to cause imminent default of the bonds, PACE said.

PACE provided a letter from Ben Watkins, director of the Florida Division of Bond Finance, that said letting state officials disregard a final bond-validation judgment would threaten the stability of Florida's public bond market.

Some of the tax collectors have tried to file suits in county-level circuit courts since the December Supreme Court ruling, but these, according to PACE, just rehash the same court-rejected arguments.

PACE is seeking an order compelling the tax collectors to collect the taxes.

The Bond Buyer sought comment from attorneys representing eight of the defending tax collectors but they didn't immediately respond. The attorneys for the other defendants couldn't be immediately ascertained.

These parties in earlier suits have argued that unless the relevant local government has first gained approval by interlocal agreement, an agency isn't permitted to finance improvements through bonds secured by non-ad valorem assessment collected under the uniform method.

PACE programs offer loans to property owners for clean energy and, in the case of Florida PACE, hurricane-resistant home improvements.