Opinion
September 12, 1952.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for St. Johns County, George William Jackson, J.
Murray Sams, De Land, for appellant.
Frank D. Upchurch, St. Augustine, for appellee.
The question here is on the validity of certain Certificates of Indebtedness proposed to be issued by the County of St. Johns to pay the cost of construction of a county jail. The County was authorized by Chapter 27864, Laws of Florida, Special Acts of 1951, to issue such certificates for such purpose and to pledge for the payment thereof the proceeds of a special five-mill tax to be levied for not more than fifteen years on the assessed valuation of county property, excluding all property exempt by law and excluding all homestead property. The County was also authorized to pledge its Race Track Funds for the payment of such certificates.
In construing Section 135.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which is a general statute authorizing counties to levy a tax of five mills for fifteen years to pay for the construction or repair of a county courthouse or jail, this court said in Sunshine Const. of Key West, Inc. v. Board of County Com'rs, Monroe County, Fla., 54 So.2d 524, 525: "There is ample authority in the opinions of this court for the issuance of certificates of indebtedness to finance the construction of a jail, Tapers v. Pichard, 124 Fla. 549, 169 So. 39, 41, and a courthouse, Posey v. Wakulla County, 148 Fla. 115, 3 So.2d 799, in anticipation of the five-mill levy instead of waiting until the accumulated taxes levied and collected under 135.01 are sufficient for those purposes." That certificates may be issued for such purposes without the approving vote of the freeholders is also settled. Tapers v. Pichard, supra, and Posey v. Wakulla County, supra. The certificates of indebtedness with which we are here concerned do not suffer from the infirmity present in the certificates involved in the Sunshine Const. of Key West, Inc. case, supra.
There was, then, no error in the decree validating the certificates of indebtedness for jail construction proposed to be issued by St. Johns County, and the decree should be and it is hereby
Affirmed.
SEBRING, C.J., and HOBSON, J., concur.
MATHEWS, J., concurs specially.
The opinion of Mr. Justice Roberts is concurred in with the limitations set forth in special concurring opinion in the case of State v. Sumter County, Fla., 60 So.2d 529. This proceeding relates solely and exclusively to the issuance of certificates of indebtedness issued for the purpose of constructing a jail in St. Johns County, Florida.