Judge upholds decision to rescind Miami Beach homelessness referendum

Why it matters: Attorneys for the voters argued that Wednesday's commission vote was the first time a Miami-Dade County municipality had ever repealed a valid referendum after voting was already underway.

• Circuit Judge Antonio Arzola's ruling means votes for Referendum 8 will not count. The Miami-Dade elections department will post notices at voting sites informing voters that the referendum is canceled.

Catch up quick: Referendum 8 called for a 1% food and beverage tax at Miami Beach restaurants with liquor licenses to fund services for those experiencing homelessness and domestic violence victims.

• The tax, which would only impact businesses not attached to a hotel that are grossing over $400,000 a year, is already collected in most Miami-Dade municipalities.
• The tax would have generated an estimated $10 million a year, with 85% going to the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and 15% going to fund domestic violence centers.
• The City Commission voted last year to place Referendum 8 on the ballot. The majority of those commissioners are still in office today.
• In a 4-3 vote on Wednesday, the Commission voted to cancel the referendum, arguing that they already fund homeless services and that it would hurt local businesses.

What they're saying: Gerald Greenberg, an attorney for the voters who requested an injunction to allow the referendum to stay on the ballot, said the timing of the commission's decision disenfranchised voters.

• Election Day is on Tuesday but mail voting began over a month ago and early voting began nearly two weeks ago.
• He argued the commission violated the law and the city's governing rules.
• "It's unprecedented and it's serious."

Henry Hunnefeld, the attorney for the city, said the court should not interfere in the political decisions that elected leaders make, which he called the "bedrock principle of separation of powers."

• Hunnefeld noted that the city had already notified voters this week that the referendum had been repealed, which likely already influenced how voters cast their ballots.
• The best way to challenge the commission's decision would be to vote in a new majority and get the referendum on the next general election ballot, he said.
• "This is quintessentially a political dispute. The way that you resolve it isn't with an injunction, it's with a vote."

The bottom line: In his ruling, Judge Arzola said while he had concerns about the timing of the commission vote, Miami Beach has "home-rule power to self-govern."

• "The City Commission put the item on the ballot and then it decided to remove it from the ballot," he wrote in his ruling. "These are political decisions that the court cannot second-guess."
• Reversing the commission's decision, he said, would cause further confusion and potentially harm voters who left the item blank believing their vote would not count.
• "This can be resolved with another election. Voters can lobby their commissioners and change that majority," Arzola said at the hearing.