More than a dozen South Florida cities filed lawsuits in state and federal court on Thursday challenging the state’s new financial disclosure requirements that come into play this summer.
Twenty-six municipalities and 74 local elected officials across the state signed on as plaintiffs, including the Miami-Dade cities of Aventura, Bal Harbour, Miami Springs, Pinecrest, Key Biscayne, North Bay Village, Golden Beach and Indian Creek. Other South Florida cities that signed on include Plantation, Coral Springs, Delray Beach and Deerfield Beach.
The cities are challenging a new law , passed by the state Legislature last year, that requires city commissioners and mayors to file a more detailed financial disclosure form, called a Form 6, that includes their net worth and the value of each asset, liability and income source over $1,000. They can also provide their most recent federal tax return to satisfy income disclosure requirements.
The lawsuits, filed against officials on the Florida Commission on Ethics, are seeking a declaration that the Form 6 disclosure requirements violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the privacy clause in the Florida Constitution.