BAY MINETTE -- The proposed three-mill property tax for Fairhope schools moved a step forward Thursday when the Baldwin County Board of Education voted their approval for a public vote on the issue.
The board approved the request, but some members expressed concerns about the plan, which would put a three-mill property tax in place for 30 years in the district that makes up the current Fairhope schools attendance zone.
“I don’t have a problem with any district wanting to do a little better,” Member Tony Myrick said. “I just have a problem with 30 years.”
Member Andrea Lindsey said the district will be in place for 30 years, but with population changes, attendance zones will shift in that time. “This bothers me,” she said. “Ten years I could see, but 30?”
Member JaNay Dawson said she worried that different levels of taxation between schools will give some areas an educational advantage over others.
“We ought to be operating with every opportunity available to every student,” she said. “I am concerned that over time we’ll see greater disparity in our communities between the haves and have nots.”
Board President Cecil Christenberry said that if some communities do not get an opportunity to provide more local funding for local schools, additional areas could split off and create their own school systems, as Gulf Shores is doing.
“If we don’t allow them to do this, we’re going to be split even further,” he said.
Christenberry, a Fairhope resident and former City Council member, said some residents have expressed concern that if Fairhope provides more local tax money for schools, the board will shift existing funding to other areas. He said the School System will not reduce funding for Fairhope if the tax is approved.
Scotty Lewis, board lawyer, said the law and the agreement between the board and districts would not allow funding allocated for the districts to be transferred to other areas in Baldwin County.
The proposal will now go to the Baldwin County Commission.
Fairhope officials have requested that the referendum on the tax be set for Sept. 24, 2019, Eddie Tyler, superintendent of education, said.
Voters in the affected area, the Fairhope schools feeder patterns, would vote on the issue. If approved, the tax would go into effect with the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, 2019. The bills for that tax would go out in 2020.
A three-mill tax would increase rates by 30 cents for each $1,000 of appraised value. The official rate is 30 cents for $100 of accessed value, but since tax assessments for residences are 10 percent of the appraised value, a $100,000 home would have an increase of $30 if the tax passed, Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Teddy Faust said.
Commercial property is assessed at 20 percent of the appraised value, Faust said.
Spanish Fort also plans to ask the Board of Education to create a tax district and set a vote on a three-mill increase. In Spanish Fort, the tax would be in place for 10 years.
The Spanish Fort request is scheduled to be submitted to the board at its May 19 meeting. Supporters of the Spanish Fort proposal are also asking for a September referendum.
Wilson said estimates based on 2016 values show that a three-mill increase would provide about $1.9 million a year for Fairhope schools and between $900,000 and $1 million in Spanish Fort. He said that if the tax passed in either area, the actual revenue would be more since property values have increased since 2016.
