Birmingham Blues

UPDATE:  The city council delayed a vote on the proposal after getting intense opposition from school board members. 

Yes, the rumors on the al.com forum are true.  The Vestavia Hills City Council is proposing to re-allocate a portion of the city’s sales tax that was previously earmarked for the school system to “city capital needs”.  The initial plan would have shifted the funds directly to the new public library, but according to my source, the council has backed off and is making a more general change.  The item is included on tonight’s agenda as Item #1 under New Business, but the wording is, um, a bit obscure.

Ordinance Number 2195 — An Ordinance Amending Ordinance 1900A An Ordinance An Ordinance Amending Ordinance 1900 To Levy A City Sales And Excise Tax; Provide For The Collection And Payment and Prescribed Use Of Proceeds Of Same; Provide Penalties For Violations Thereof; And Repeal Prior Ordinances Levying A Similar Sales Tax.   (No, all those extra words are not typos — at least not on my part.)

Here’s the background:  in 1997, the council passed an ordinance that allocated 1/12 of the city’s 3-cent sales tax to the school system.  Currently, that’s around $750,000/year.  (The schools also receive funding from the city’s substantial ad valorem taxes, and those dollars are off limits to the council.)  The council’s line now is that the allocation was made to help the schools deal with proration in the state’s education budget, but there was no proration in 1997.  The system uses local funds to pay for 65 teacher units above what the state allocates; this change will cut funding the equivalent of 10 units ($75,000 per teacher, which includes salary, benefits, etc.).

The student population in Vestavia Hills increased around 1,400 from 2000 to 2006; Liberty Park is adding a new middle school, the High School is adding 24 classrooms (on top of another 24 added a couple of years ago), and Vestavia Hills Elementary West is adding 2 classrooms.  The Larry Langford tax has provided a $55 million windfall for the city schools, but all of that is earmarked for buildings and technology.  So we have cash to build the additional facilities necessary to house more students, but the system could lose the sales tax revenue that helps pay for the teachers.

Part of the council’s justification for the change is that 70% of families living in Vestavia Hills right now don’t have school age children (I haven’t confirmed that number), but my source tells me that young families are moving in in droves, and the K-1^st population will likely boom in the next year or two.

I don’t claim to know all the pros and cons of this change, but I do know that we moved to Vestavia Hills because of the high quality of the schools.  I shop locally as much as possible because I know part of the sales tax revenues support the school system.  I’m excited about the proposed new library, but I think the city council can find a better way to fund it.

If you want to give your input, plan to attend tonight’s meeting (6 pm, Council Chambers, 513 Montgomery Highway).  Or if you, like me, can’t attend the meeting, contact your council members now and let them know what you think.

Hat tip, Blues reader Peggy.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Local Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.