FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Two Fairhope parents and a school board member who attended Tuesday’s town hall meeting agreed later in the week that the County Commission should vote for an immediate 1-cent sales tax without first holding a countywide referendum.

“My opinion is that we should ask them to vote as commissioners,” Bob Callahan, Baldwin County Board of Education member from the Fairhope area, said Thursday regarding a 1-cent sales tax to be used for the county public school system. “They have the authority invested in them by the (state) constitution to make this decision themselves, and it would expedite the flow of money.”

All three commissioners present at J. Larry Newton school voiced their support for a sales tax that night, but only if passed by a referendum. Commission Chairman David Ed Bishop also said he would support a referendum for a property tax increase for education.

“The only thing that can get us relief this year is a sales tax,” Callahan said. “A property tax would not in any way help us with the current year budget crisis we face because we wouldn’t see revenue on it until it is assessed and people start paying their bills next year.”

Kristie Street, a parent of a J. Larry Newton school student and main organizer of the meeting there Nov. 5, echoed Callahan’s statement that the commission should pass the tax itself and not through a referendum, which a county official said could cost between $80,000 and $120,000.

“These financial problems will only get worse if we don’t get any help,” Street said. “The realistic immediate solution would be a 1-cent sales tax. It can be hard to do the right thing, especially when it is not popular, but that’s what we elected those gentleman to do. It may not be good for my pocketbook, but the future of this community and this nation is our children.”

Although Street and Fairhope resident Scott Thompson are likely to be on opposite sides of an educational issue at a meeting next week, they concurred about the need for the commission to act without a referendum.

“I was glad they did say that they would support (the sales tax),” said Thompson, whose family moved to Fairhope about a year ago and has one child in the local schools. “But a direct vote would be the simplest way and less expensive.”

Callahan, Street and Thompson are all expected to attend a Monday council work session and offer differing perspectives on other school funding issues and whether a study on the feasibility of creating an independent city school system should be conducted.

“The sales tax does seem like a viable option (regarding the funding issue), but I don’t think it changes the need for the feasibility study to be done,” said Thompson, regarding the study that he and 11 other Fairhope residents requested of the council in September. “We’ve got a funding mechanism that is broken. The whole idea behind the study is to make sure that our tax dollars are being used in the best way possible.”

The Monday work session agenda is expected to include introductory comments by Callahan on funding issues, then from those who requested the feasibility study, and finally from those who oppose the study, which includes Street, who has been a vocal opponent.

“My main concern when I heard about the feasibility study for a city school system was that we (at J. Larry Newton) are outside the city limits,” she said. “There is a possibility that we can be left behind and that our children will be left behind and not included in the new system. No one has told me for sure, or anything that I have read about the idea has reassured me that we would be included.”

The City Council included $25,000 in its budget this year after receiving a Sept. 8 letter from that group arguing for a study that would cost that amount. However, the council must formally approve those funds at a council meeting.

“As you are all aware, the (county school system) has experienced serious financial difficulties,” says the September letter sent to the council, stating that a group of concerned citizens began meeting to discuss options to provide relief within the Fairhope area. “After gathering facts and looking closely at several options, including a countywide 1-cent sales tax and a 3-mill property tax increase for the Fairhope tax district only, we have concluded that the logical next step is to conduct a feasibility study on the options of a Fairhope City School System.”

The county school system currently has a budget that is about $75 million smaller than last year’s, said Terry Wilhite, BCBOE spokesman, this week.

“This does not include the 7.5 percent proration announced by Governor (Bob) Riley on Sept. 29, which constitutes approximately $7.7 million in additional cuts,” he said, referring to mandatory budget cuts announced after the county passed its school budget earlier that month.

A new 1-cent sales tax would raise approximately $29 million, according to the BOE chief financial officer, Wilhite said.

“The 1-cent (sales tax) would alleviate (the current shortfall) and put us in a position to deal with the additional cuts in revenue that we expect in next year’s budget,” Callahan said.

The next school board meeting is Nov. 19, which would be the first time the board could vote to request that the commission pass a sales tax.

“They would not have a reason to do it unless we spell out to them what we need it for and how we’ll spend it,” Callahan said.

Wilhite said the agenda for that school board work session may not be set until the day of the meeting but that “finances are always discussed, and it’s anticipated the sales tax will be discussed.”

Several people at Tuesday’s town hall meeting scoffed afterward regarding a new tax for the schools and questioned whether the school system had made all personnel cuts possible, especially in its central office.

But Street said she was convinced the schools had cut to the bone, after the research she and other parent-organizers had conducted for the meeting.

“There’s not any more cuts to be made,” she said. “If they cut any more teachers, we’re going to have much bigger classrooms.”

Street said she was disappointed with the turnout at the Tuesday meeting, which she estimated at 120 people, but that some officials who were there said the number was twice as large than at some other recent town hall meetings.

“There’s so many parents out there,” she said. “I don’t know if they think they can’t do anything, but we’ve got to educate this community on what is going on. The principals here have done a great job of making it work, which is a great compliment to them, but it also puts across a false sense of security that there’s nothing wrong.”

Callahan said that while it is his “fervent hope” that the BOE votes to request the commission to pass a sales tax to address current funding issues. He also thinks a longer-term funding strategy is needed.

“My hope is that the board and the commission would consider the commission to vote on a temporary tax to help us with our current crisis but with the pledge that we must work together as was called for by so many the other night for a longer-term solution,” he said. “Then the Legislature, the commission and school board could craft a tax plan that would resolve all the issues long-term for the people and go to the people for a vote at one time, through a referendum on something that is strategic and encompasses the needs for all of the county.”