- November 19, 2024
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The following is an adapted news release from Flagler County.
Flagler County’s attorney has been appointed to the Florida Association of County Attorneys Board of Directors.
Al Hadeed served as the county’s attorney from 1990 to 1999 and returned in 2007.
He is chairman of the association’s Finance and Tax Committee, which reviews the State Legislature’s actions on taxes and finance which affect local government, and he's a member of the Amicus Curiae Committee, which helps determine which cases are pursued in the appellate courts on behalf of all 67 counties in the state.
“It is a critical time with the economic downturn, and we are alert to the tendency of state government to shift its costs to local taxpayers,” Hadeed said. “ We have had many successful battles, including defeating the attempt to have the counties responsible for the expenses of the regional conflict counsel. We also blocked the repeated attempts by the online travel companies to obtain a special-interest tax exemption to avoid paying the tourist development tax and the state sales tax on their rentals. They have been pocketing the money, instead, and we are suing those companies for back taxes."
The Florida Supreme Court will hear that case in April.
Hadeed also described the effort to win back local control over residential neighborhoods after the Legislature passed a 2011 bill taking away home-rule power over short-term vacation rentals in single-family neighborhoods.
“We will try to educate as many as we can and hope that common sense and fairness prevail over special-interest money,” he said.
