Judge rejects motion to dismiss lawsuit over MDX

A Tallahassee judge is allowing a lawsuit over the abolishment of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority to proceed, saying that a bill passed this spring to replace the county agency with a new organization might have violated the county’s “home rule” charter.

Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper rejected a motion to dismiss the case Thursday brought by the Florida House, which had argued in part that MDX, as the agency is known, is not protected by the county’s unique “home rule” authority in the state Constitution because it was created under statutory law.

“What we have here is Miami-Dade County exercising its authority to create MDX,” House lawyer Mohammad Jazil told Cooper. “That authority was not home rule.”

But Cooper countered that the agency could be authorized by general law and have home rule protections still apply.

“If you argue the law should be different … you need to argue that to another court,” he said.

Cooper also said that his decision on the lawsuit had nothing to do with the merits of home rule, but rather if the law violated existing home rule protections in state law.

“It’s not my job to decide whether home rule is a good thing, a bad thing or indifferent thing,” he told Jazil. “[It’s] in the Florida Constitution. I don’t make that law. The people of the state of Florida made that law.”

MDX, which controls five toll road expressways in the county, has long drawn criticism from some local officials, including former Miami lawmaker Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, for expanding tolling along parts of its roads. Nuñez and other top leaders, including current House Speaker José Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, helped successfully push this year’s measure in the Florida Legislature to dissolve the agency, and sponsors cast the bill as needed “reform” to how the area’s toll roads are run.

But opponents to the bill, HB 385, which replaces MDX with a new agency called the Greater Miami Expressway Agency, or GMX, said the law unconstitutionally applied only to Miami-Dade and violated the county’s “home rule” protections that shield Miami-Dade’s local authority under the state Constitution.

Days after the Legislature passed the bill, the expressway authority sued the state for what it said was a move to get rid of the agency to give more control to the governor. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in early July.

Cooper had agreed last week in a hearing to a move to allow bills to continue to be paid using the MDX bank account and name, in the absence of temporary bill-paying authority. During Thursday’s hearing, he also agreed to have DeSantis removed as a defendant in the case and scheduled another hearing for Aug. 9.

The case, regardless of the outcome, is likely to be appealed to a higher court after a decision is made.

This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 3:53 PM.