County school tax renewed

By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
Voters in Consolidated School District A approved by a wide margin the renewal of a 7.3 mill property tax for 30 years in a special referendum Tuesday. The count was 3,538 votes for and 468 against the measure.
While the number voting was small (15 percent) the margin of victory was large in all but two of 26 boxes. Those voting absentee rejected the tax by a vote of five to three while those voting at Sparkman Civic Center turned it down nine votes to three.
Morgan County School officials were thrilled with the results.
School Board Member Carolyn Wallace stood by with media representatives as election results were delivered and tallied at the Morgan County Probate Judge’s office. She took a sigh of relief and flashed a big smile when the Trinity box came in and showed the tax winning by margin of 238 to 22 votes.
The 7.3 mill tax expired Sept. 30, 2006. It renewal will be retroactive to that date and no loss will result from taxes collected on real estate property. However, a personal property tax collected on privately owned motor vehicles has not been collected since that date and has resulted in a loss of approximately $100,000, according to Balch.