Photo by Erin Nelson
Hewitt-Trussville High School on Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022.
After the school tax referendum vote failed in August, city leaders say they will need to figure out another way to make the improvements they want to the city’s schools.
“I think we are going to regroup ... and come together and bring some other team members in and look at some possibilities," Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat said after the defeat.
On Aug. 27, voters soundly rejected a proposed property tax hike, which would have helped pay for school system projects, by a 58% to 42% margin.
Choat said he and other key stakeholders will reconvene soon to explore options for several projects, including additions to Hewitt-Trussville High School, a new lunchroom for Hewitt-Trussville Middle School and the construction of a new elementary school to alleviate overcrowding at Paine Elementary School, currently the most populous elementary school in Alabama.
Trussville City Schools Superintendent Patrick Martin said, despite the setback, he and the board will find new avenues to fund the needed projects for the system's schools.
“I am appreciative to our citizens that attended one of the educational meetings over the last few months and carefully considered the proposed plan,” Martin said. “With that being said, we will now begin the process of determining our next steps to best meet the needs of our students.”
Trussville City Councilwoman Lisa Bright agreed with Choat but emphasized that steps must be taken to address each issue soon.
"We know we've got to address it in some way,” she said.
However, Bright acknowledged that it is important to allow the community some time to catch its breath after the lead-up to the vote, which was, at times, contentious.
Choat and Bright said the measure may have failed due to the economy and uncertainty going into the November presidential election, and, admittedly, some of the “optics” were a problem, considering other projects Trussville City Schools has completed in recent years, specifically the new Board of Education building and Trussville softball complex.
“I do not think this is a vote against our school system in any way because I think people are quite happy with the school system. It was just a hard pill to swallow,” Choat said, adding that many Trussville residents, even those who voted for the measure, considered the financial impact of the increase in property taxes.
One man who voted against the measure was Heath Elrod, a long-time Trussville resident and one of the most publicly outspoken opponents of the initiative. Elrod said he felt taken for granted as a taxpayer and didn’t like the “optics” of funding the new board of education building and state-of-the-art athletic amenities, such as the new softball complex, even if grants and private donations were the source of funding for those projects.
“I think they got a little greedy and that pushed a bunch of people off,” Elrod said. “Did we need, as I call it, the Taj Mahal of Board of Education buildings for Trussville?”
Elrod said his opposition was not personal, but that the system’s need to increase tax revenue was, in his opinion, the result of poor planning on the part of the board and city leadership.
“The superintendent is a good guy, he just overshot it,” Elrod said. “They always say, ‘If you don’t vote for it, you’re against the kids.’ No one is against the kids. They knew there was a need years ago and they didn’t fill it. They just thought, ‘We’ll just tax the people again.’ That’s not how you do it.”
