School funding renewal: 5 things to know about Montgomery and Pike Road's upcoming vote

When Montgomery residents head to the polls to vote in the presidential primaries on March 5, another important issue will also appear on the ballot: the renewal of a decades old property tax that goes toward public education.

The tax impacts all Montgomery County residents and specifically benefits both Montgomery Public Schools and Pike Road Schools. Considering each district has seen a relatively recent vote to increase property taxes to benefit the schools, MPS and Pike Road leaders said they have seen a lot of confusion in the community around what the March 5 vote actually means.

Earlier this week, they held a joint news conference in the Montgomery County Commission Chamber to explain the vote and dispel any misunderstanding. MPS Superintendent Melvin Brown and Pike Road Superintendent Keith Lankford both issued disclaimers that their purpose was not to advocate for or against renewal, only to encourage informed participation.

Here’s what Montgomery County residents need to know:

1. This is not a new tax.

First approved in 1984, the 3.5 mill tax currently provides over $12 million in annual funding both to Montgomery Public Schools and Pike Road Schools. The breakdown is approximately $11 million to MPS and $1.2 million to Pike Road.

The tax was last renewed in 2004.

“This has been supporting our districts for the last almost 40 years,” Browns said. “So this is not new. I need to stress that and separate it from the ad valorem that we passed a couple of years ago.”

If residents vote in favor of the renewal, it will not raise the amount of taxes each resident pays the county. That rate will remain the same.

2. For individual households, voting down the tax would save between $6-$30 a month.

Pike Road Schools Chief Financial Officer Amber Anderson did the math on how much individual households could save if residents choose not to renew the 3.5-mill tax.

She said that those with a property value of $200,000 would save less than $6 per month. For a property valued at $500,000, owners would save less than $15 per month, and for a property valued at $1 million, owners would save less than $30 per month.

“Is the monthly capital savings of less than $30 a month worth, in terms of Pike Road, a $1.2 million cut in the quality of education currently provided to our children?” Anderson said.

3. The tax plays a defined role in funding each district.

Representatives from MPS and Pike Road said they want every Montgomery County voter to be aware of what this tax is used for on a day-to-day basis.

For MPS, Brown said it goes toward classroom instructional resources, professional development for teachers and staff, extracurricular activities and athletics.

For Pike Road, Lankford said the funds go toward the district’s participation in Alabama’s Foundation Program, which is the system Alabama uses to apportion education resources. Essentially, each district contributes 10 mills of its assessed local property wealth in exchange for state funding.

“We pay a little to get a lot,” Lankford said. “The state provides us the salaries and benefits for our teachers, our principals, our librarians, our counselors, as well as other key expenses that it takes to operate a school system.”

4. The districts will have to make difficult cuts if the tax isn’t renewed.

Within MPS, leaders expect hard decisions around the budget if the vote results in a loss of  $11 million.

“If the support for our children does not continue, there’s no doubt that we’ll see cuts in operations,” MPS Chief School Finance Officer Arthur Watts said.

He specified that cuts would likely impact staffing, extracurricular activities and certain instructional programming.

The significance for Pike Road is slightly different. Should the 3.5 mills not get renewed, Pike Road officials said the district will have to pull from local sales tax funds to fill in the $1.2 million gap. The sales tax money comes to Pike Road from Montgomery County, and it is currently used to hire additional teachers and support extracurricular activities.

“It also provides other programs and activities that are essential to our community, but are not deemed essential to education,” Lankford said. “No resident of Pike Road or of Montgomery County will see an increase in their taxes, but this will have a long-lasting effect on the quality of education that we are able to provide.”

5. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed is pro-renewal.

On Tuesday evening, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed discussed the tax renewal as a key piece of his annual State of the City address, unapologetically voicing his support.

“I know in Alabama tax is a four-letter word, but we’ve got to understand this is an investment. This is for another three letter word, ROI,” Reed said, referring to return on investment. “You get out what you put in, so this is a vote to ensure that Montgomery Public Schools, as well as Pike Road Schools, continue to receive the same amount of dollars they currently receive.”

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: 5 things to know about Montgomery and Pike Road's tax renewal vote