Russellville school officials to begin push for tax

The Russellville City School Board announced Thursday that they will begin a push soon to encourage residents to support a proposed one-cent sales tax increase.

The referendum for the one-cent sales tax increase, which will provide county and city schools with some much-needed additional funding, will be presented to voters on the June 1 ballot.

“The one-cent sales tax is very important to the future of our school system and I hope everyone will fully support it come June 1,” said Don Cox, superintendent of Russellville City Schools.

If passed, the additional funding will be divided between school systems with 58 percent going to county schools and 42 percent to city schools.

In accordance with the Alabama School Fiscal Accountability Act, Cox explained that each system that does not maintain a one-month’s operating balance is required to submit a plan to the State Department of Education which details the system’s plan of action to improve the financial condition of the system and to return it to at least one-month’s operating balance.

Cox said the one-cent sales tax is one aspect of that plan.

“Passing this tax will create around $800,000 in revenue for our school system,” he said. “We will also be maintaining the tax that already comes from the city, which will help stabilize our financial conditions in the future.”

Cox added the state has issued a “bare-bones” budget that has cut schools around $1.5 billion statewide since the 2008 school year.

Cox explained cuts were made to protect the 3,700 state school jobs, which would have been in jeopardy had the cuts not been made.

Cox hopes to get the one-cent tax campaign rolling as soon as possible.

The county commission implemented a one-cent sales tax increase in January. They stipulated that it would be in effect until June, when voters would decide whether to repeal the tax or keep it in place for two more years.