Pinellas County, Florida v. Joiner
Pinellas County owns roughly 12,400 acres in Pasco County and claimed sovereign immunity from Pasco County's ad valorem taxes. The Florida Supreme Court held that a county's common-law sovereign immunity from ad valorem taxation does not extend to county-owned property located outside its territorial boundaries, answering the Second District's certified question in the negative and approving that court's decision. Chief Justice Muñiz dissented, arguing the common law of intrastate intergovernmental taxation and the structure of the 1968 Constitution make all county-owned property presumptively immune.
Key facts
- Pinellas County owned approximately 12,400 acres of real property located in Pasco County and claimed sovereign immunity from Pasco County's ad valorem property taxes on that extraterritorial land.
- Pasco County sought to tax Pinellas County's property; Pinellas County asserted common-law sovereign immunity as a defense based on its status as a county government.
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Why it matters
This is a definitive Florida Supreme Court answer to a certified question of great public importance affecting every local government that owns land outside its borders — utilities, landfills, wellfields, airports and… — full analysis with a trial
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