On Wednesday, Gardendale Mayor Stan Hogeland and Gardendale Board of Education President Michael Hogue announced the city would not appeal a federal court’s ruling disallowing the city to break from the Jefferson County School System and form its own system.
Last month, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed the separation was racially motivated.
“Upon the consent and full support of the Mayor and the Council of the City of Gardendale, the Gardendale Board of Education will not pursue an appeal of the ruling from the United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit,” said a letter signed by Hogeland and Hogue and dated February 28 that was addressed to the Jefferson County Board of Education.
That letter formally ended an effort that began in October 2012 when the city authorized a study about the feasibility of Gardendale creating its own school system.
In 2013, voters in Gardendale approved a 5-mill property tax in addition to a 5-mill property tax levied by the Gardendale City Council to finance the school system.
The tax went into effect in 2014, but now that the school system is no longer a possibility, what will happen to that tax and the money collected from the tax?
Last week, Gardendale resident Jay Campbell filed a suit against the city of Gardendale and J.T. Smallwood, the tax collector of Jefferson County in Jefferson County Civil Court seeking a judgment on the legality of that tax.
In an appearance on Birmingham Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Aunie Show” on Thursday, Mayor Stan Hogeland suggested putting the taxes collected into the schools in Gardendale.
“The property tax was passed with the intent to form our own school system,” Hogeland said. “It was written as for educational purposes. But there’s a lot of people now that are willing to take that local tax and put it into our local schools.”
Hogeland cited Pinson and Clay as being two cities within the Jefferson County School System that subsidize the county’s effort. When asked by Murphy if the city had been spending the tax revenue generated by the property tax, he acknowledged they had been.
Jeff Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and works as the editor of Breitbart TV. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff_poor.
