A group of registered voters in Miami Beach failed to convince a judge Friday to overturn the city commission’s hasty decision earlier this week not to count votes in the Nov. 5 referendum that asks voters to Approve a 1% food and beverage sales tax on certain products. businesses primarily benefiting the homeless.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Antonio Arzola ruled that the city commission had the authority to reject Referendum 8 and not accept the election result. The referendum question is already on the ballot and more than 20,000 voters have voted in advance.

Miami beach commissioners voted 4-3 Wednesday on a resolution to drop the referendum question that sought voter approval to allow the city to levy a 1 percent tax on food and beverage sales to primarily benefit the homeless. The tax was only to be levied on businesses that sell alcohol and make at least $400,000 a year. This excluded hotels and motels.

The money was earmarked to fund programs for unhoused residents through the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, as well as programs for victims of domestic violence.

Commission members who voted in favor of the measure said the city had nothing to gain and risked having no control over the money.

In their complaintNearly a dozen plaintiffs argued the city commission violated the law and ignored voters just days before Tuesday’s election. Early voting has been underway since October 21.

“By attempting to remove this ballot measure weeks after voting began and six days before the Nov. 5 general election, the City Commission thwarted voters’ opportunity to be heard, threw the election into chaos at the most sensitive time and imposed an almost impossible burden on election officials,” the complaint states.

The plaintiffs accused the city commission of violating the law because the ballot measure – known as Referendum 8 – was “mandated” by a city ordinance approved in July 2023.

“This is not possible,” the plaintiffs write. “Moreover, by attempting to undo its prior actions calling for an election once it is underway, the City Commission has violated its own rules of governance.”

LEARN MORE: Miami Beach drops vote on homeless, domestic violence tax – after voting begins

“Even if a majority of city commissioners fear a public vote in favor of a modest tax to support services for unhoused people and victims of domestic violence, they should not be allowed to prevent a legal election already underway “, notes the complaint. “There is no precedent in this county for such action.

City commissioners are using “Venezuelan-style tactics to suppress democratic actions just days before Election Day,” the plaintiffs said in an email to WLRN, in direct reference to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s refusal to disclose the voting results of the disputed presidential election of July 28. election.

The sales tax is estimated to have generated $10 million annually to help fund the construction and operation of homeless housing and domestic violence centers, as well as housing, food, clothing, medical care, mental health treatment, training and education.

Following the commission’s vote Wednesday to invalidate the ballot item, Commissioner David Suarez sent a public email describing Referendum 8 as “a heavily funded initiative by billionaire developers and lobbyists seeking to impose an additional $1 tax.” % on restaurants for the homeless.”

His colleague, Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who joined him in not counting votes, wrote in an email that the $10 million a year was intended for “the slush fund of lobbyist Ron Book’s Homeless Trust which had been placed on the ballot more than a year ago by the old commission, forgotten by us all and never spoken of again.

Ron Book, president of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, criticized the allegations. Book is not one of the plaintiffs in the complaint but supports it.

“Anyone who criticizes philanthropic charitable participation participating in a referendum that aims to end homelessness is simply wrong,” he told WLRN in a phone interview. “Compare the number of unhoused people living on the streets with other urban communities in America, and tell me we shouldn’t continue to fight and fund what has otherwise worked to keep our community from becoming a homeless shelter.”

Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt was one of three commissioners who voted against invalidating the referendum question. She acknowledged the concern expressed on the dais during Wednesday’s commission meeting about interfering with the ongoing public vote.

“Regardless of the ballot issue, this attempted repeal is a subversion of the process. This takes away the power of the people’s votes and I will never be for that,” she wrote to WLRN via text message.

In the meantime, the city sent out a public email to notify residents that said: “Any votes cast for this public action will not count toward approval or rejection of the public action,” the email states .

The neighboring town of Bal Harbor has a similar item on its Nov. 5 ballot. If the tax is approved, Miami Beach and Surfside will be the only municipalities in Miami-Dade that do not contribute to the county’s homeless and domestic violence tax program.

Wednesday evening, the Miami Herald editorial board slammed commissioners for the “anti-democratic” approach.

“The last-minute decision to cancel a November ballot question that would ask voters whether to authorize the tax looks like an undemocratic effort by commissioners to overturn a potential election outcome they are not comfortable with. All right.”

The influential board had recommended that voters in Miami Beach and Bal Harbor approve the ballot items.