CHAPMAN, Justice.
Chapter 22645, Acts of 1945, Laws of Florida, imposed a tax on cigarettes sold in the State of Florida. The proceeds derived from such taxes were paid into the State Treasury and designated "Cigarette Tax Collection Fund". The money accumulating in this fund, from month to month, was transferred to the General Revenue Fund. Chapter 22645, supra, was amended, in part, by Chapter 24363, Acts of 1947, Laws of Florida. Chapter 26320, Acts of 1949, amended Chapters 22645 and 24363 and repealed all laws and parts of laws in conflict therewith. F.S.A. § 210.01 et seq.
The title of Chapter 26320, Acts of 1949, recites, in part, that it was an Act imposing a state tax on cigarettes; it authorized a tax levy by municipalities of Florida on cigarettes; it granted a reduction on State tax to the extent of municipal tax paid; the Act appropriates the proceeds of the cigarette taxes to the municipalities and Tuberculosis Hospitals; municipalities are required to make financial reports from time to time; also certain proceeds of the taxes levied on cigarettes are required to be applied by municipalities to reduce ad valorem tax millage, and the Act provides a formula therefor.
Set forth in the Act are legislative findings of fact important to the several municipalities of Florida and are viz.:
"[1] Whereas, the incorporated municipalities of the State of Florida are performing numerous functions of the state through the use of local tax revenue in building, maintaining and preserving within the municipal boundaries streets, bridges and facilities for the preservation and improvement of public health, welfare and safety of the citizens at large; and
"[2] Whereas, the limited sources of revenues available to said municipalities have brought about a financial crisis in municipal government to the extent that citizens are being oppressed by heavy local taxes and are nevertheless unable to obtain satisfactory and orderly operation of local government; and
"[3] Whereas, said municipalities of the State of Florida are without sufficient tax income to properly carry out and perform the various duties imposed upon them, including but not limited to the duties of maintaining roads and streets and the preservation of public health, welfare and safety, which duties are primarily the obligations of the State of Florida; and
"[4] Whereas, the State of Florida should provide financial aid to assist in performing state functions which are and may be performed by said municipal government; and
"[5] Whereas, many municipalities have levied varying amounts of cigarette taxes and many other municipalities propose to levy a tax thereon; and
"[6] Whereas, the levying and collection of such varying amounts of taxes by many separate governmental units is causing great confusion and a heavy burden on the industry in the segregation of cigarettes to be sold in the various municipalities, the affixing of various stamps thereon, in dealing with numerous inspectors, and dealing separately with many taxing authorities; and
"[7] Whereas, such varying taxes cause a varying sales price on packages of cigarettes within the boundaries of various municipalities and within and outside incorporated areas result in unfair competition among merchants and loss of revenue to the municipalities; and
"[8] Whereas, there is a large and unnecessary cost burden in the collection of such numerous taxes; and
"[9] Whereas it is desirable and essential that taxes upon cigarettes be uniform throughout the state and all taxes thereon be collected by one agency; and
"[10] Whereas, it is necessary to grant a credit or reduction in the state tax to the extent of any municipal tax to prevent an excessive tax burden upon cigarettes to the injury of the public, the consumer and the industry, and to prevent a loss of the tax revenue".
Section 210.03, supra, (1) authorizes any municipality of Florida, in the discretion of its governing body, to impose an excise or privilege tax upon the sale of cigarettes within the territorial limits of such municipality up to the same amount for the same size and the same package content referred to in Section 210.02 of the Act; (2) the tax authorized shall be collected by the Beverage Department of the State of Florida; (3) the tax, when imposed by a municipality, shall be advanced and paid by the dealer to the Beverage Director for deposit and distribution according to the provisions of the Act; (4) when a munipality imposes such a tax, a certified copy of the municipal law imposing same shall be filed with the Director; (5) any funds received by the municipalities of Florida by virtue of the cigarette tax levy shall be expended by the said municipality for certain state functions and purposes within the State of Florida enumerated in subd. (5), supra.
Section 210.20, subd. (1) grants the authority to employ clerical assistants; subd. (2) as collections are received from the cigarettes taxes the Director shall pay the same into the State Treasury designated as the "cigarette tax collection fund", which shall be distributed or paid (a) by the State Comptroller to the municipalities or other agencies authorized to receive the same; and (b) proceeds thereafter, if any, accruing from the cigarette taxes are appropriated by the Act for the construction of tuberculosis hospitals.
Section 210.21 of the Act provides that enumerated portions of the moneys arising from a levy of the cigarette tax shall be exclusively used by said municipalities in the reduction of the municipal ad valorem taxes. The reduction feature thereof as contemplated by the Legislature is made applicable only to the several municipalities of Florida as have brought themselves within the scope of the Act. It will be observed that two methods are set out and clearly defined whereby receipts of cigarette taxes may be used by municipalities in the reduction of municipal ad valorem taxes. The first method is Subsection (1) (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Section 210.21, which are viz.:
"(a) There shall first be determined the amount by which the cigarette tax revenue of the municipality in the twelve months ended June 30 of the current calendar year exceeds its cigarette tax revenue in the twelve months ended June 30 of the immediately preceding calendar year, the amount of such excess being hereby denominated `increased cigarette tax revenue.'
"(b) There shall next be determined the amount of revenue realized to and including June 30 of the current calendar year from the operating ad valorem tax millage levied in the immediately preceding calendar year, the amount so determined being hereby denominated `ad valorem tax revenue.'
"(c) The reduction shall be by the ratio which fifty [50] per cent of the `increased cigarette tax revenue' bears to the `ad valorem tax revenue.'
"(d) Provided, however, that no municipality shall ever be required to reduce its operating ad valorem tax millage to less than seventy [70] per cent of its 1948 operating ad valorem tax millage".
and the alternative method is Subsection (e) of Section 210.21, supra, which is viz.:
"(e) As an alternative to the provisions and requirements of the foregoing paragraphs (a)-(d), inclusive, fifty [50] per cent of the additional cigarette tax revenue received by any municipality during any twelve month period subsequent to November 1, 1949, under the provisions of this Act over any cigarette tax revenue which it received during the twelve months ending November 1, 1949 or so much thereof as shall be necessary for the purpose, shall be placed in the sinking fund of the municipality to reduce the ad valorem debt service millage or appropriation required to provide the annual debt service requirements of said municipality for its general obligation bonds issued for the functions and purposes set forth in subsection (5) of § 210.03 of this Act, and the balance of said revenue shall be used for said purposes set forth in said paragraph of said subsection."
It appears by the record that certain officials charged with the administration of the Act were in doubt as to the meaning of the formula adopted by the Legislature for the reduction of ad valorem levies against property within the several municipalities of Florida and, accordingly, the City of Coral Gables filed in the Circuit Court of Leon County, Florida, its bill of complaint against Clarence M. Gay, as Comptroller of the State of Florida, under our declaratory judgment statutes and prayed for a judicial interpretation of the meaning of Section 210.21 of Chapter 26320, supra.
The bill of complaint alleged that the City of Coral Gables functioning under Section 210.21(a), supra, for the period between June, 1948, to June 30, 1949, had no receipts from cigarette taxes, as it did not tax the sale of cigarettes for the period, but for the period beginning July 1, 1949 to June 30, 1950, it enacted an ordinance and otherwise brought itself within the scope of Chapter 26320, Acts of 1949. It is not disputed that the cigarette tax revenues of the City of Coral Gables for the twelve month period ending June 30, 1950, including cash receipts and estimated revenues accrued as taxes on cigarette sales through June, 1950, was the sum of $146,100.00 which amount is the "cigarette tax revenue" referred to in the legislative formula under Section 210.21(a), supra.
The bill of complaint further alleged that the estimated revenues realized by the City of Coral Gables from the "operating ad valorem millage" for the fiscal year from July 1, 1949, through June 30, 1950, was the sum of $497,551.00. Section 210.21(c) provides that the reduction shall be by the ratio which fifty (50) per cent of the "increased cigarette tax revenue" bears to the ad valorem tax revenue. Since the "cigarette tax revenue" of the City of Coral Gables for the year ending June 30, 1950, was the sum of $146,100 — then fifty per cent, or one-half of the said amount, is $73,050.00. It therefore follows that the amount of the reduction of the ad valorem levy on the part of the City of Coral Gables is the ratio that $73,050.00 bears to $497,551.00, the amount of the ad valorem tax revenue, and, according to the record, amounts to a reduction of ad valorem tax millage of 14.68% of 13.5 mills or 1.98 mills, leaving an ad valorem millage of 11.52. The Chancellor below in his final decree sustained the formula supra and the Comptroller appealed.
The Comptroller entertains the view that, "* * * when Section 210.21, Florida Statutes as amended by Chapter 26320, Laws of Florida, Acts of 1949, is read in connection with the remainder of the said chapter, and especially Section 210.03, Florida Statutes, as amended by said Chapter 26320, and in the light of the intent and purpose of the legislation to reduce ad valorem taxes of the municipality, it is evident that the Legislature intended for the municipality to reduce taxes in proportion to the amount of cigarette taxes to be received and used during the fiscal year in which the ad valorem taxes are to be collected. For the want of any formula by which the exact tax collections from cigarettes could be determined a plan of estimates was set up by which estimates are made, using the amount of taxes from cigarettes collected for the previous year for cigarette tax income during the next fiscal year. The amount of taxes in the previous year is used as a basis from which the current income from such taxes may be estimated. The estimate is for a full year and not for a part of a year. This being true where the taxes were not collected for a full year [taxes were collected only from November 1st 1949 to June, 1950] the only practicable method for estimating the taxes for the following year, during which taxes will be collected for a full year instead of a part of a year, is to take the partial year (in the instant case an estimate for eight months or for two-thirds of a year) and use it as a basis for estimating the contemplated full year of taxes. In the instant case the income from taxes for the eight months should be taken as two-thirds of the year the sum being $115,645.00 [this figure represents actual cash receipts] was two-thirds of the entire year, so that the estimate for the following year should be $173,467.50). The sum to be used is $173,457.50 instead of [either] $115,645.00 [or $146,100.00] as contended by the plaintiff."
If the Comptroller's interpretation of the formula could be sustained a greater reduction in taxes would result than contended for by the City of Coral Gables. If the Legislature had employed the term "fiscal year" or "twelve months' period" then the contention of appellant might be sound, but the Legislature employed different language viz.: "the amount by which the cigarette tax revenue of the municipality in the twelve months ended June 30 of the current calendar year exceeds its cigarette tax revenue in the twelve months ended June 30 of the immediately preceding calendar year." The intent of a statute is the law and the courts are charged with the duty of ascertaining and effectuating it. Scarborough v. Newsome, 150 Fla. 220, 7 So.2d 321. When the legislative intent is clear from the words used in the enactment, courts are bound thereby and may not seek a meaning different from the ordinary or common usage connotation of such words unless, upon a consideration of the act as a whole and the subject matter to which it relates, the court is necessarily lead to a determination that the legislature intended a different meaning to be ascribed to the language adopted by it. From our study of the entire statute involved in this case we do not find a basis for declaring a legislative intent contrary to that which is definitely indicated by the express language employed by the legislature in Section 210.21(a). Indeed, it is patent that the legislature overlooked or failed to anticipate the fact that many cities would only have cigarette tax revenue from the effective date of the act (November 1st 1949) to June 30th 1950, because such cities had not theretofore levied such a tax.
Affirmed.
ADAMS, C.J., and SEBRING and HOBSON, JJ., concur.
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