Tuscaloosa City School Board calls on residents and calls out Stop the Big Tax PAC

TUSCALOOSA, Ala (WIAT) – City of Tuscaloosa residents are days away from voting on a tax referendum, and while the city school system hopes to secure the vote, there are people encouraging taxpayers to vote “no.”

Polls open at 7 a.m. Wednesday Sept. 24 for residents to cast their vote on increasing city property tax by 11.5 mills. The increase would generate an additional $17 million that would go directly towards the Tuscaloosa City School System.

However, a political action committee, Stop the Big Tax, is pushing residents to vote against the increase. TCS board held a press conference Wednesday morning, calling out the PAC for using propaganda messages in their tactics.

“Commercial and residential landlords and real estate developers who had made enormous amounts of money on their property deals are leading the efforts to vote no against our children,” TCS Board Chair Eric Wilson said.

Rumsey Property, a local real-estate group, has “September 24: Vote no on the property tax increase” posted on their property. CBS 42 was also able to confirm that the Builders Group has supported the PAC’s efforts through monetary donations.

Wilson says the PAC has made claims that the TCS school board has mismanaged their finances, as one reason they’re calling on taxpayers to head to the polls.

“These are outright lies,” Wilson said. “These men are trashing our superintendent, questioning our educators, misrepresenting data, and degrading our progress,”

Wilson has been on the school board for the last seven years. Throughout his tenure. he does not recall a time where concerns the PAC has expressed have been shared with the board.

“I’ve not seen one of them at a board meeting, I’ve not seen one at our schools learning how we do things and seeing the progress that each school is making,” Wilson said.

City of Tuscaloosa native and property owner Mark Booth supports the PAC and plans to vote against the tax increase.

“It’s going to be a drain on first time home buyers, a drain on the elderly and the less fortunate in this community that have less money to pay in tax,” Booth said.

Property valued at $300,000 in the City of Tuscaloosa would cost a property owner an extra $345 a year, or $28.75 a month in property tax if the referendum passes.

The average home cost in the city was $299.9K as of August 2024 according to Realtor.com, meaning if the vote passes, city residents on average would be paying that extra cost.

“If it had been a reasonable amount, I think the members of this community that support the ‘no vote’ on this would have been more than happy to have a small increase on the tax for the school system,” Booth said. “But they’ve got to prove they can handle the money they have.”

Soon, the money TCS does have won’t be able to cover the costs as rising costs and inflation are impacting the school system just as it’s impacting the average resident TCS school board said.

“If you vote ‘no’ every popular program in column one will eventually be cut or reduced,” Wilson said. “Every school, every district, teacher, every student, every parent and child will fill that impact.”

Some Programs and Resources deemed at risk by TCS:

• Employee and Educator pay raises
• Provisions of employee benefits package
• Pay career Tech Teachers commensurate with industry
• Summer learning
• Pre-K (unfunded portion)
• Math and Reading Interventionists
• Advanced Placement (AP courses)
• Art and Music in each school
• STEM and Gifted Services
• Special Education Services
• Social Workers

At risk means that without the extra $17 million that would be generated by through the property tax, those programs would have to lose money or be removed all together.

“There is room for the next two years in the reserve for us to start analyzing this, but most of those are local units,” Wilson said. “Meaning it comes from our local tax dollars, those are units over and above what the state pays us.”

Some people recognize school systems have needs, but people like Booth believe there are alternative options, and measures to look at.

“We’re growing the tax base without having to raise taxes,” Booth said.

The City of Tuscaloosa has seen a lot of growth over the years. In terms of residency, when more students come to school at the University of Alabama, Boothe said that brings in more property owners, renters and thus more property taxpayers.

In order for the city to continue thriving and growing, Wilson says it starts in the classroom.

“We want a great community,” Wilson said. “Strong schools mean a strong community and we can either pay now with a slight tax increase, or we can pay later with an uneducated workforce, or a workforce not as educated as we’re making them.”

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