After continued discussion and attempts for legal action at the state level, an additional Senate Bill was presented that would, in some school officials' eyes, offer aid to the "tremendous division" among schools in Baldwin County regarding tax distribution.

Senate Bill 270 is sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, and had its first reading on April 1.

According to the official bill document, it would require "proceeds from any county sales and use tax authorized by a local law to be distributed to every local board of education in the county on a pro rata basis."

This would cause any sales tax collected in the county to be allocated to all school boards within the county, based on the number of students enrolled at those school systems. For Baldwin County that would include Baldwin County Public Schools (BCPS), Gulf Shores City Schools (GSCS) and Orange Beach City Schools (OBCS).

If approved, SB270 would affect all counties in Alabama, with the exception of counties that contain Class 1 municipalities as requested by Sen. Marika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove.

SB270 is among Senate Bill 135, House Bill 420, Senate Bill 136 and House Bill 421. All four bills, introduced by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Daphne, and Rep. Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley, relate to the distribution of taxes for schools in Baldwin County.

As previously reported by GCM, a law is in place that allocates funds collected from 1 cent of any purchase in Baldwin County to a variety of county operations including the Baldwin County Juvenile Court, Baldwin County District Attorney's Office, Coastal Alabama Community College, general county road or traffic infrastructure improvements and the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE).

The law was originally written before the city schools separated from the county system, when BCBE covered all public schools in the county.

Recently, GSCS and OBCS released a joint statement on Elliott's and Holk-Jones' legislative efforts in favor of the city schools.

At the April 8 meeting of the Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee, which Elliott is the chairman of, SB270 was read for the second time and the item was placed on the calendar to be reviewed by the state legislature.

Before the vote was held, the floor was open to public comments.
John Wilson, BCBE chief financial officer, brought a state tax to the committee's attention, which is collected countywide and distributed to "the island in the same manner as every other" school in the state.

Section 40-12-4, which is the tax Wilson referred to, in the Code of Alabama explains a license tax within each county in the state that distributes funds to each board of education within a county.

"The beach cities are well funded through countywide educational taxes (Section 40-12-4) and lodging taxes," said Wilson. "Both cities have extensive capital campaigns going on right now to generate this and both cities have the taxing capacity to generate more revenue should they choose to."

Wilson went on to say the funds collected from the 1 cent tax is "earmarked" to only be used in "capital construction and building maintenance."

"This tax is currently pledged for bond payment for the construction of our newest high school in Baldwin County, that's Baldwin Preparatory Academy," said Wilson. "… Undoing this tax with the pledge attached to it would cause significant financial problems in bonded indebtedness."

In this case, bonded indebtedness refers to an agreement to pay off a specified sum, which was spent on Baldwin Prep, at some point in the future using the funds received from the 1 cent tax.

"We have seen a substantial amount of growth in the county, like I said, we are averaging more than 500 students per year joining our school system. This is not the time to be making adjustments," he said.

COMMENTS FROM BALDWIN COUNTY MAYORS

Bay Minette Mayor Bob Wills spoke at the committee meeting, questioning whether it was "appropriate" for the bill to leave the committee and advance to legislation that could lead to "county funds being given to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach."

"If you're looking at it from a fundamental fairness standpoint, I think Gulf Shores and Orange Beach kind of created this situation and I think it's only fair that they should live with the situation they created," Wills said.

He said if GSCS and OBCS wanted to implement school programs "in a magnificent way" they should "pay for it themselves."

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft released a statement on April 9 in support of SB270 saying "the money should follow the students."

"Every citizen in Baldwin County pays this tax and every child who attends a public school in Baldwin County should benefit equitably from it," said Craft in his statement.

He said the city "must endure a deliberate misinformation campaign" from BCPS. The first instance of "misinformation" he mentioned was regarding an agreement to revisit the ruling of the 1 cent tax distribution.

Wilson said in the meeting there was an agreement to revisit the tax distribution but "we never said nor expected that we would give it away with nothing in return."

The agreement, as mentioned by city board officials and by Elliott in the meeting, was to be revisited after 5 years, which was last December.

As previously reported by GCM, Gulf Shores Superintendent Matt Akin said the agreement was not in writing but was a verbal agreement between Tyler and Akin at the time.

In his statement, Craft mentioned how Wilson's "claims" on SB270 causing BCPS "financial instability are absolutely false."

"The amount of money Gulf Shores students would see under this proposal is less than 0.005% of the Baldwin County Public Schools budget," Craft said.

He went on to discuss "divisive rhetoric" from BCPS Superintendent Eddie Tyler "creating friction across our entire county."

"Instead of treating all public-school students in our county fairly and teaching our kids the value of sharing, (Tyler) says children in Gulf Shores don't deserve to benefit from this revenue because they are 'wealthy,'" Craft said. "His statements ignore that all Gulf Shores students are Title I eligible, meaning over 40% of our students qualify for the free and reduced lunch program."

Craft said, "I don't wish this fight on any other city or county in our state. That is why the legislature must pass Senator Weaver's statewide bill into law and stop this injustice from ever occurring again."

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon told Gulf Coast Media he was "at a loss" regarding the current distribution of the 1 cent tax and how Orange Beach must "pay to educate our children" while also "paying to educate those we do not."

"I fail to understand why anyone would not see the unfairness of the distribution of the 1 (cent) sales tax," Kennon said. "The county no longer educates our children, we do. In what universe is it fair?"

COMMENTS FROM SCHOOL SYSTEMS

In a message to BCPS parents acquired by GCM, Superintendent Tyler said Elliott's legislation was "seeking to remove millions of dollars in annual funding" from BCPS.

As previously reported by GCM, Gulf Shores Board of Education (GSBOE) President Kevin Corcoran said, depending on which set of bills by Elliott and Holk-Jones is selected, the cities could be getting anywhere from $3 to $5 million from the 1 cent tax. The city schools' joint press release said there is "$28 million generated annually" from the tax.

Tyler said in his message, "The beach cities chose to leave the Baldwin County Public School System of their own free will. No one forced them to leave or accept a deal, and they had every opportunity to refuse. When they did leave, they knew full well what tax money was theirs and how much they would get."

He also mentioned that the school systems agreed to revisit the tax distribution, which, according to Tyler, they did in March 2021. He said after the meeting with GSCS he presented the potential "new deal to share this revenue" to the BCBE but "they were unable to reach an agreement."

"I shared that outcome with Gulf Shores and offered to meet again in the future with the hope of finding a better result. Instead of agreeing to come back to the table, Gulf Shores chose to sue Baldwin County Public Schools," he said. "Two years later, the Supreme Court ruled in our favor, dismissing the Gulf Shores action."

He went on to say how Elliott represents "100,000 voters across" parts of Baldwin County and Tyler is "saddened by his disregard for your children" as he "focuses his efforts only on those children at the beach."

"Senator Elliott has his argument, but we have the facts … I promise you that we will fight to protect this funding that the legislature earmarked for your children and the betterment of Baldwin County," he said.

Both city school board of education presidents spoke at the April 8 meeting as they were in attendance, along with Tyler although he did not speak before the committee.

GSBOE President Corcoran said, "Senate Bill 270 would create a statewide mandate that taxes collected in Alabama for the benefit of educating public school children should benefit all public-school students in the area where the tax is collected."

OBCS Board of Education President Randy McKinney said the argument over funding is "such a divisive choice of trying to separate people."

IS THIS A LOCAL OR STATE ISSUE?

"The reason this is a statewide bill has been very clearly demonstrated today. You've seen the division among us and we're all friends," McKinney said as he gestured around the committee room. "I like all of these people. I worked for years with Mr. Tyler on the State Board of Education. I care how successful his students are."

BCPS financial officer Wilson said it is "most certainly a local issue."

Corcoran said he believed SB270 was a statewide issue because of the "tremendous division within Baldwin County" caused by the bills previously introduced by Elliott and Holk-Jones.

A similar situation in Jefferson County was often brought up in the committee meeting as an example where "money following the child" appeared to work successfully.

Sen. Coleman said, "Jefferson County legislators made the choice. We met with our people back home. We came up with the agreement. It was handled locally."

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said she would like to see BCPS, GSCS and OBCS handle the situation locally, as it was in Jefferson County.

"Let me just say this, you are all neighbors," Coleman-Madison said. "… What effects one city is going to effect the other. It seems like you ought to be coming together to work together."

She also mentioned how the issues did not affect the "personalities here" at the committee meeting but rather "the people" who live in Baldwin County.

"You know, they say when elephants fight, the only thing that gets hurt is the grass," she said. "… I really hope, again, that you can all work this out."