ADKINS, Justice.
This is an appeal from a Final Judgment of the Circuit Court of Pasco County validating general obligation bonds issued by a Pasco County Municipal Service Taxing Unit for acquisition of sewer and water systems. We have jurisdiction. Article V, Section 3(b)(2), Florida Constitution.
The Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County enacted an ordinance creating a Municipal Service Taxing Unit to be known as West Pasco Water and Sewer Unit (hereinafter referred to as the "Unit"). The Unit was composed of the entire unincorporated area of the county. The commissioners called a special election by the residents of the Unit for the purpose of securing their approval for the issuance of $41.5 million general obligation bonds by the Unit. The proposed bond issue passed by a majority of 79 percent.
The appellants (taxpayers) initiated suit in circuit court to contest the legality of the election and its results. Immediately thereafter, Pasco County filed a complaint seeking validation of the bonds. The appellants intervened in the latter suit and sought dismissal contending, as in their earlier action, that the commissioners' use of their emergency powers to establish the Unit was invalid and that the issuance of general obligation bonds for the expansion of sewer and water systems was improper. The actions were consolidated.
The circuit court held the election was valid and validated the bonds. The appellants (taxpayers) have appealed to this Court.
The first question is whether Chapter 125, Florida Statutes, could be utilized by the county to authorize general obligation bonds for the acquisition of sewer and water systems. The pertinent portions of Chapter 125 read as follows:
Proceedings to validate governmental securities determines only issues going directly to the power to issue the securities and the validity of the proceedings with relation thereto. A petition for validation of governmental securities brings into question the right and authority of the taxing unit to issue the bonds, together with all proceedings taken in connection with their issue. The purpose of a judgment validating and confirming bonds is to put in repose any question of law or fact that may be subsequently raised affecting the validity of the bonds. Collateral matters are not adjudicated in bond validation proceedings. See State v. City of Miami, 103 So.2d 185 (Fla. 1958), and authorities cited therein.
Chapter 125, Florida Statutes, implements the provisions of Art. VIII, Section 1(f), Florida Constitution (1968), which gives counties not operating under county charters, such as Pasco County, such powers of self-government as are provided by general or special law. This provision of the Florida Constitution also authorizes the board of county commissioners of such a county to enact ordinances in the manner prescribed by Chapter 125, Florida Statutes, which are not inconsistent with general law.
The intent of the Legislature in enacting the recent amendments to Chapter 125, Florida Statutes, was to enlarge the powers of counties through home rule to govern themselves.
The precise approach used in authorizing the proposed bonds by Pasco County was previously employed in the case of State v. Orange County, 281 So.2d 310 (Fla. 1973). In that case Orange County, a noncharter county, enacted a home rule ordinance authorizing it to acquire and construct county capital projects and to issue revenue obligations to finance the cost thereof, payable from race track funds and jai alai fronton funds. This Court found that there was no prohibition to be found in the Florida Constitution or general or special law, but, on the contrary, that there was delegated authority for implementing by ordinance the issuance of the proposed bonds. This Court noted that the intent of the Legislature in enacting Chapter 125 was to obviate the necessity of going to the Legislature to get a special act passed authorizing bonds of the type proposed:
As a result of this decision, a great many county capital projects have been financed throughout the state by using the device of a home rule ordinance.
Furthermore, in the case of Tucker v. Underdown, 356 So.2d 251 (Fla. 1978), the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, established six municipal service taxing units pursuant to Section 125.01(1)(q), Florida Statutes (1975), and county home rule ordinances, in the unincorporated area of the county. Appellants in that case questioned the constitutionality of Sections 125.011(1)(q) and 125.01(1)(r), Florida Statutes (1975), and contended that the levy of ad valorem taxes for the purposes of raising tax revenues to be devoted to solid waste disposal, and its interrelated but optional reduction of user charges imposed to meet debt service and operating costs under the prior bond issue, constituted an impermissible financing scheme to meet solid waste disposal needs. This Court disagreed with the contentions of the appellants and held that the previous sections of Chapter 125 were constitutional and that such a financing scheme was entirely appropriate, thereby affirming the final judgment of the lower court.
Appellants also contend that there is no provision in Chapter 125, Florida Statutes (1975), authorizing the Board of County Commissioners to submit the question of the issuance of the proposed general obligation bonds to the electorate, therefore, the holding of the election was unauthorized and invalid. Article VII, Section 12(a), Florida Constitution (1968), however, requires any indebtedness of a local government body with taxing powers which is payable from ad valorem taxation, matures more than twelve months after issuance
This provision of the Florida Constitution is implemented by Section 5 of the ordinance which requires that the issuance of bonds for which the full faith and credit of the Unit shall have been pledged as additional security, shall be approved at an election of the qualified electors residing in the Unit, such election to be called, noticed and conducted in the manner provided in the Florida Constitution and statutes for elections. Since the bonds proposed to be issued by the county pledge both net revenues to be derived from the operation of the combined water and sewer system and ad valorem taxes to be levied and collected in the area of the Unit, it was necessary to hold a bond election as part of the authorization for their issuance.
The provisions of Chapter 153, Florida Statutes (1975), have not been sought by Pasco County as authority for the issuance of the proposed bonds. Use of this statute is not mandatory, but is only an additional grant of authority or power to do the things expressed therein. Section 153.20, Florida Statutes (1975), provides insight into the intent of the Legislature in enacting Chapter 153:
This language, or language similar to it in other general laws, has been construed by this Court on many occasions and always for the purpose for which the Legislature intended it; not as a limitation or prohibition of a power but as an added grant of authority or power to do a particular thing or perform a particular act the power or authority for which was not contained in, or in fact was in conflict with the authority of, any other law, and then only when the public entity was invoking such additional and supplemental power and availing itself of its use.
In the case of State v. City of West Panama City Beach, 127 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1961), the City of West Panama City Beach authorized the issuance of its water revenue bonds pursuant to Chapter 180, Florida Statutes, payable from cigarette taxes and utilities services taxes. Chapter 180, however, did not specifically authorize the pledging of this security for the bonds; therefore, the city sought to rely upon a provision in Chapter 180 similar to that previously quoted in order to secure the benefits and powers granted in other general law. The provision relied upon read as follows:
So, therefore, this Court has not only stated that an act, when it recites that it is an additional and supplemental grant of power, may be used in addition to other laws on the same subject, but may be rejected by a public entity and another applicable law used in its place. So it is in this case. Pasco County has elected to proceed solely under the provisions of Chapter 125, Florida Statutes (1975), as amended, and has rejected the use of any other statute. In so doing it has acted properly and within the scope of its authority as set forth by decisions of this Court.
The trial court was correct in holding that the action of the Appellee Board of County Commissioners in declaring an emergency and using the emergency enactment procedure contained in Section 125.66(3), Florida Statutes (Supp. 1976), for the enactment of the ordinance, should not be disturbed. The law in Florida with respect to declaration of an emergency first appeared in the case of State ex rel. Swift v. Dillon, 75 Fla. 785, 79 So. 29 (1918). In that case a Miami licensing ordinance was attacked on the ground that the emergency measure was not such as was authorized by the city charter and that the ordinance was, therefore, invalid. The court held that the ordinance was presumptively valid and that the question of whether or not such emergency exists as to warrant its being made immediately effective rests in the judgment and discretion of the city council. Dillon was cited with approval in Metropolis Pub. Co. v. City of Miami, 100 Fla. 784, 129 So. 913 (1930), in which a Miami zoning ordinance enacted under the charter emergency provisions was upheld. Both Dillon and Metropolis Pub. Co. were cited by the Court in State ex rel. Skillman v. City of Miami, 101 Fla. 585, 134 So. 541 (1931), which restated and reaffirmed the general law of Florida pertaining to emergency ordinances. See also, Fuller v. Gardner, 138 Fla. 837, 190 So. 442 (1939); McCall v. State ex rel. Daniels, 156 Fla. 437, 23 So.2d 492 (1945).
Although conflicting, there is evidence that prior to November 1, 1977, the date of enactment of the ordinance, there existed a very serious condition in regard to the water service being provided the citizens of west Pasco County. In response to the emergency which it perceived to exist, the Board of County Commissioners duly enacted the ordinance on November 1, 1977, pursuant to the emergency procedure contained in Section 125.66(3), Florida Statutes (Supp. 1976). The factual dispute as to the existence of the emergency was resolved by the trial court in favor of the Board of County Commissioners. We cannot conclude that the evidence before the trial court compelled a conclusion that the Board's declaration of an emergency amounted to a sham or fraud. Under such circumstances we will not disturb the ruling of the trial court. Fuller v. Gardner, 139 Fla. 837, 190 So. 442 (1939); City of Miami Beach v. Forte Towers, Inc., 305 So.2d 764 (Fla. 1975).
Since time was of the essence, a successful bond election was held at which a 78% majority approved the issuance of the proposed bonds. Shortly thereafter the Appellee Board adopted a bond resolution using the procedure approved by this Court in State v. Orange County, supra.
There is competent, substantial evidence to sustain the trial court's decision as to the existence of an emergency on November 1, 1977. Therefore, it should not be disturbed. Furthermore, the trial judge was correct in holding that the proposed issue of bonds was fully authorized by law.
The final judgment of the trial court validating the proposed issue of bonds is affirmed.
ALDERMAN, J., concurs in result only.
ENGLAND, C.J., dissents.
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