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Jefferson County Commission distributes $9.1 million to Hoover City Schools

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Photo courtesy of Grady Thornton

The Jefferson County Commission today distributed $69 million of unspent money from a county education sales and use tax to the 12 public school systems in the county, including $9.1 million to Hoover City Schools.

The $69 million was collected from taxpayers but not needed to pay off the new debt the county incurred when it refinanced warrants this year, Commission President Jimmie Stephens said.

When the county refinanced its debt, there was money left over due to lower interest rates and the timing of the refinancing, Stephens said.

This money is in addition to about $2 million that Hoover schools will receive each year going forward, now that the Jefferson County legislative delegation allowed for the extension of the sales tax and restructured how the money will be divided, Stephens said.

“I know the schools have been struggling for money. It should be a good shot in the arm for them,” Stephens said of today’s distribution.

Stephens, a retired career tech instructor, said education never has enough money, but today’s distributions are a significant amount of money that should demonstrate the County Commission’s commitment to education and the future of the county.

County commissioners presented each school system with a check today at The Club in Birmingham. The total amounts for each system were:

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said her school district receives the $9.1 million “holding out both hands.”

“We’re certainly grateful for that money,” she said.

The Hoover school system definitely has a good use for it, she said. She imagines it will come in handy as the school system closes on its $4.25 million purchase of Riverchase Middle School from the Pelham Board of Education and renovates the school for whatever use the school board decides is best, she said.

The Hoover school board also will see its debt payments rise by $2 million a year in 2020, so this money could help cushion some of that increase, Murphy said.

Hoover school board Vice President Craig Kelley said he’s still upset about how the county legislative delegation, working with county officials, restructured the proceeds from the sales tax going forward. They took money originally allocated for schools and redirected some of it to the county’s general fund, the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, Birmingham Zoo and discretionary spending accounts controlled by legislators.

If proceeds from the sales tax had remained allocated for schools, Hoover City Schools likely would have received about $13.5 million a year going forward, Kelley said.

“The golden egg is gone. They killed the goose,” Kelley said. “It’s robbery.”

Jefferson County legislators who voted in favor of the redistribution of the money will be held accountable for it at the next election, he said.

Stephens emphasized that the sales and use tax is a county tax that was passed to allow for the construction of new schools across the county and the retirement of debt in places where new schools were not needed at the time.

“I don’t understand how a member of a school board can think that that was their money forever,” Stephens said.

The county lost a significant revenue source when its occupational tax was declared unconstitutional and needed more revenue to restore services that had been cut, Stephens said. “You have to look at this holistically,” he said.

Some Hoover officials want a bigger cut of the county sales tax money because so much of those sales are generated from Hoover businesses, but the people shopping in Hoover and paying the tax come from all over the county, Stephens said.

If Hoover officials want to pass a city sales tax increase, the City Council can do so without a vote of the people, he said.

“You’ve got to have the political will to make tough decisions,” Stephens said. “People don’t mind paying taxes if they see where they go.”

They just don’t want to pay taxes and have the money funneled to politicians’ friends, he said. “It’s all about perceptions and expectations.”

This article was updated with additional comments from Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens at 10 a.m. on Sept. 21.

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