From Trussville Tribune staff reports
JEFFERSON COUNTY — The ad valorem tax vote held Tuesday in Jefferson County came with a hefty price tag. The cost for the election to be held was $500,000, which was paid for by Jefferson County.
A small percentage of registered voters turned out in the election, with just 5.99 percent of voters casting a ballot. The overwhelming support extended the $100 million property tax until the year 2045.
According to ABC 33/40, Jefferson County’s Probate Judge said the vote was not held during the Novemeber general election to avoid a three-page ballot and longer wait times.
City school systems in Birmingham, Homewood, Leeds, Mountain Brooks, Hoover, Midfield, Tarrant, Bessemer, Fairfield and Vestavia Hills joined Trussville in voting to approve a local property tax. Trussville, however, had the largest percentage of dissenting voters with 13.72 percent voting against the renewal of a 5.1 mill property tax. No other city reached double figures in percentage.
Trussville City Schools drafted a letter and mailed them to all citizens of Trussville reminding them of the tax vote and how important they money is to the system.
From Trussville City School’s 2017 budget, the two county-wide taxes accounted for $2.86 million of the school’s budget. That equals to $1,054.00 per student.
Locally, the district tax equals about $1.8 million or 43 percent of the system’s local ad valorem monies.
The total dollar amount is more than $4.3 million, which equals 12 percent of the Trussville City Schools total operating budget.
County-wide, the tax is expected to bring in $100 million annually for the school systems.
17 Comments
Matt Coleman
I never heard anything about a vote on anything
Kay Hicks
Me either!
Kaylyn McDaniel
We never heard anything about this because they don’t want us voting against it…
Jill Faucett Clark
I heard nothing about it until the day of. Everyone I told knew nothing about it- it was a slimy tactic to get something passed. There is zero reasons this could not have been on a November ballot and someone should be held accountable for at least wasting a half million of our tax dollars.
Charles Bush
This vote should have been done back in November in the general election. The powers that be have wasted tax dollars with the election date, and they look like they are trying to hide something with a semi secret election.
Scott Buttram
I’m fascinated by these comments and I’ve heard them repeated elsewhere on Facebook.
The fact is The Trussville Tribune reported on the tax renewal vote multiple times for well over a month, every single TV station in Birmingham reported on it multiple times, The Birmingham News ran multiple stories. Newspapers in Hoover, Vestavia and Mountain Brook ran stories.
School boards across Jefferson County held a combined news conference explaining the importance of the renewal and urging support. which was covered and reported by all of the above mentioned media outlets.
In Trussville, letters were sent to the parents of more than 4,000 students in the school system. Yard signs were all over the city for weeks. In fact, similar signs were all over Jefferson County . I passed dozens upon dozens of the signs still up yesterday on my way to Homewood.
Just for the fun of it, I went back and checked. The Tribune story about TCSBOE urging residents to support the school tax renewal was read 1,007 times. The story about Hobby Lobby announcing an opening date was read 26,544 times.
Reporting and receiving news is a two-way street.
Briana Moore
Very interesting information, Scott. I think it just proves the point that news-worthy media is not reaching the people. I did see at least one article in The Truss Tribune, but I didn’t recall a date for the voting. Regardless of the reason(s) why people didn’t vote, I do agree with others – it should have been on the ballot in November. Period. It was absolutely ridiculous for a county with financial struggles to spend that kind of money for an additional voting event for the reasons they stated. .
Daniel Ingram
Maybe we should hold a vote on a new tax to pay for the vote on the new tax. $500k?? That’s absurd.
Scott Buttram
Briana, thank you for your feedback. Those are very good points. I tend to agree about putting it on the November ballot. At the same time, I understand the problems with a 3 page ballot in November.
Probably more importantly – and unsaid – is the fact that these taxes are critical to the basic operations of schools throughout the county. Had the renewal failed, every school system probably wanted time to go back before their local citizens with a Plan B. By law, that requires several specific time limits.
For instance, had this failed countywide, Trussville, Hoover Vestavia and Mountain Brook could have come back and said, “We’ll just convert the county tax to a local tax since it won’t increase our taxes and we can protect our school systems. The others are on their own.”
That probably wouldn’t bode well for the county as a whole, but I think that’s what would have happened.
As for reaching the people with the news, I think the above stats show more that the news does reach them. It’s just a matter of what they choose to read.
Jessica Garrison
It’s not a new tax. It’s a renewal of an existing tax that supports schools in Jefferson county–one you were already paying and will now continue paying at the same amount.
Dennis Palmer
Scott Buttram what does this tax renewal cost each household annually?
Scott Buttram
Dennis, Trussville will receive about 7.5 mills from the county portion and 5.1 mills locally. That works out to about $11 per $100,000 in assessed home value per month. Based on Trussville home values, probably about $200 per year on average.
Bruce Wilson
You can only thank those who voted these bad apples into office
Dennis Palmer
Scott Buttram so about 55 cents per day, annualized.
Scott Buttram
Yes, that would be about right.
Sharon Dear Bernard
We received a letter in the mail. Some may have thought it was junk mail and never opened the envelope! We have wonderful schools in Trussville! My grandsons have great options when it comes classes available to them. Their education is the primary source to their future success in life. If you can afford to live in Trussville, you can afford $11.00 a month to support the future of these students!
Thomas D Robinson Sr.
It’s funny anytime they want Taxes and I know it’s already there is mention Education and boy everybody jumps on the Bandwagon.