City Council votes to ask legislature for property tax referendum
Financial aid could soon be on the way for Mountain Brook Schools.
On Feb. 11, Mountain Brook City Council voted unanimously to ask the state legislature to call for a referendum to raise property taxes exclusively for education.
The Mountain Brook school board has proposed a 10-mill ad valorem tax increase that Superintendent Dicky Barlow said would net an additional $6 million annually for the school system.
“The vast majority of it is for capital projects to improve every school in our school system,” Barlow said during Monday’s council meeting.
The ad valorem tax in Mountain Brook is currently at 99 mills, so a 10-mill increase would raise property taxes by about 10 percent, Barlow said.
“On a $500,000 home, that would be a $500 increase,” he said. “If it’s a million dollar home, it would be an increase of $1,000.”
Barlow said that Mountain Brook last raised its ad valorem tax in 1991.
Fred Renneker, a school board member at the time who attended Monday’s meeting, said the last increase passed with about 90 percent public approval.
In addition to helping pay for capital projects, Barlow said the additional money would go toward funding improvements in school safety and quality.
Those improvements include adding school resource officers, increasing focus on student mental health issues, ensuring that schools are well-staffed and offering professional development opportunities for faculty, Barlow said.
Capital improvements would be paid for through one or two bond issues of $57 million and completed as finances are saved over a 16- to 20-year period, Barlow said.
“This isn’t just for the near future,” Barlow said. “This is for the next 20 years, 30 years of our school system.”
Barlow said he is hopeful the state legislature will approve the council’s request at its next legislative session. If passed, he said he expects a citywide referendum to be held later this year or in 2020.
Barlow said he recommended the city council to vote in favor of a tax referendum because a facilities audit completed last year revealed that Mountain Brook schools need work that will cost millions of dollars. A community financial task force for the schools found that increasing the ad valorem tax would help fund the work.
Gary London, co-chair of the task force, said at Monday’s meeting that many of the improvements relate to aging infrastructure. He said it’s important to remember that Mountain Brook’s youngest school is 50 years old.
“We’re at a crossroads,” councilman Billy Pritchard said. “If the school system is going to be able to continue at the level of excellence that it has over the last 40-plus years, it’s got to have some help. We can’t wait any longer.”
Also during the meeting, council members:
- Approved the minutes from the Jan. 28 meeting.
- Approved a resolution recommending retail beer and table wine licenses for the Hampton Inn at 2731 U.S. 280.
- Authorized the installation of a street light across from 331 Cherry Street.
- Authorized an agreement with Net Connection, LLC to install a bullpen/batting cage by the girls' softball field at the city's athletic complex.
- Voted unanimously to rezone 132 Queensbury Crescent from temporary Residence-C District to permanent Clustered Residential District.
- Approved a budget amendment that will allow the Police Department to purchase a Ford Fiesta as a parking control vehicle.
- Voted to ask the local statehouse delegation to sponsor a bill that will allow on-premise Sunday alcohol sales to begin at 10 a.m. instead of noon.
- Approved a request to modify the traffic signals on Euclid Avenue at Dan Watkins Road.