City residents say yes to tax hike

The schools will receive their financial aid. 

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, Mountain Brook residents voted to increase the city’s educational ad valorem property tax by 10 mills.

According to unofficial results from the citywide referendum that were posted to mtnbrook.org— and verified by City Finance Director Steve Boone — 1,824 people voted for the tax hike, while 968 people voted against it. 

That equates to about a 65% to 35% split, which was more than enough for the increase to pass. Passage only required a simple majority, 51% to 49%. 

Boone said the City Council will meet Oct. 1 to certify the results. 

"We've got to wait on the provisional ballots to be checked out by the county," Boone said, "but it's not going to change anything. It's going to pass regardless."  

The busiest poll location was City Hall, which saw 419 people vote in favor and 245 vote against. The next busiest was Brookwood Baptist Church, which saw 433 people vote in favor and 167 vote against. 

Full results can be found here. 

Mountain Brook Schools Superintendent Dicky Barlow addressed the outcome in an email to parents on Tuesday night. 

"We never take for granted the support our schools and our staff receive from this community," Barlow said in the email. "The voters in Mountain Brook understood the factors that made this request necessary, and supported their schools. On behalf of our entire school community, we extend our deepest appreciation to you the citizens of Mountain Brook."

Barlow has said the millage rate increase, from 99 to 109 mills, will generate an additional $6 million in annual revenue for the school system.The bulk of that money will help fund capital improvement projects at its six campuses, the youngest of which is 50 years old. 

The revenue also will help finance enhancements in school safety and quality, such as adding school resource officers and increasing focus on student mental health. 

“We’re not asking that there be brand new schools built,” Barlow has told Village Living. “We’re saying we just need to upgrade our schools, make sure our students are safe and continue to stay great.”

This is Mountain Brook’s first ad valorem tax rate increase since 1991. That increase passed with about 90% public approval, Barlow said.  

Mills are calculated as the amount of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value. Barlow said that owners of a $500,000 home will pay approximately $500 more in property tax annually, while owners of a $1 million home will pay around $1,000 more.

The tax increase will take effect in 2020. 

“I think it’s reasonable,” Barlow said. “I live in Mountain Brook, and I’m more than willing to pay that type of increase for my children — of which I have three — to receive the quality of education that they are receiving.” 

Tuesday’s vote capped a process that began a few years ago, when the school system hired an architectural firm to evaluate the needs of each Mountain Brook school. The audit found the district required future capital improvements ranging from $31 million to $87 million. 

The low figure represents the cost of upgrades the school system must make, Barlow said, while the high figure represents the cost of upgrades it eventually needs to make. 

A 28-member community task force chaired by Gary London and Nancy Goedecke formed after the audit in August 2018. The group examined the school system’s spending and suggested actions it could take to ensure educational quality and financial capability for years to come, including how it might pay for capital improvements. 

Barlow said that MBS lost about $17 million in expected revenue from 2008-2018 due to funding cuts. The task force determined that raising the ad valorem tax rate would help the schools compensate for the loss and finance the future. 

Barlow presented his request for a schools tax referendum to the City Council in February. The council voted unanimously to ask the State Legislature for approval. It got it in May with the passage of Senate Bill 177, sponsored by Sen. Jabo Waggoner.

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Barlow and other proponents of the tax hike highlighted Mountain Brook’s educational quality, the need for capital upgrades and the connection between good schools and property values. 

In August, Mountain Brook was named the 24th best school district in America by Niche.com. 

“While I can’t tell you that if the property taxes raise, your property values will go up, I will tell you that there’s a huge correlation between quality schools and property values in a community,” Barlow said at Monday’s City Council meeting, “and we’ve seen that in Mountain Brook for the last 60 years.”

This article was updated Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 10:05 p.m.