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Laird, Baker & Blackstock Attorneys at Law When Experience Counts 501 North Main Street Opp, Alabama 36467 Phone334-493-9716 |
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Mobile
Register News City, county schools want income from land leases 10/15/02 By KAREN TOLKKINEN Staff Reporter Just outside the Satsuma city limits, 640 oil-bearing acres pumped out $1.1 million last year for the Mobile County Public School System. Those lands and others now under the control of the county system could become potent revenue sources should four small cities decide to form their own breakaway school district, officials say. The properties don't just produce revenue from oil leases; there are school-owned lands leased for hunting and business use, while others are harvested for timber. "If we form our own school system we would definitely pursue that revenue," said Satsuma Mayor Billy Bush. Around the state, city school systems are fighting with county school systems about who gets how much revenue from school-owned lands. Saraland Mayor Ken Williams said he thinks the cities have a legitimate claim to that money. "We pay taxes like everybody else," he said. "It would be a big help." The four cities are only beginning to examine whether to form their own system. Williams said he is traveling this week to Leeds, a city of nearly 10,500 residents, which is in the process of pulling away from the Jefferson County School System. The four Mobile County cities have yet to form a steering committee or conduct a feasibility study for the proposal. Backers of such a proposal would not only have to figure out how to do it -- while individual cities can withdraw, a state School Board association official said state law does not authorize multiple cities to do so -- they'd have to figure out a way to pay for the new district. When Williams first raised the issue, Saraland Councilman Ron Mitchell pointed out that Mobile County is able to draw taxes from its large commercial districts in Mobile. The largest commercial district in the four cities is in Saraland, which has a Big Kmart and where a Super Wal-Mart sits next to a few hotels, restaurants and gas stations. All four cities are struggling -- as is Mobile -- with flagging revenue. Together, the north county four cities generate about $4.7 million a year in property, car and sales and use taxes, according to the Mobile County Revenue Department and the Mobile County License Commissioner's office. How much help revenue from the school lands would provide depends on how large the city school system would be, and how big its budget. Thomasville, for example, a city school system in northern Clarke County, has a $10.9 million budget for 1,652 students. Mobile County, the state's largest school system, has a nearly $500 million budget for about 65,000 students. The 2000 Census shows that 5,283 children between the ages of 5 and 19 live in the four north Mobile County cities. Overall, Mobile County has 92,608 children in that age range. Budgets fluctuate from year to year and system to system depending on building construction, transportation needs and other factors, said Charles Willcox, assistant superintendent for finance for the Mobile County School System. And the magnitude of help also depends on how that money would be divided -- by student, or by location -- if at all. Mobile County is unique in Alabama in that the school board manages its own "16th section lands." Those lands were given by the federal government to Alabama when it became a state, and any proceeds from sales or use were to go for education. The deeded lands were the 16th section in each township -- and amounted to about 21,000 acres in Mobile County. In 1969 and 1973, the Legislature gave control of the lands in Mobile County to the county Board of School Commissioners and to the University of South Alabama's Board of Trustees. Elsewhere, school lands are managed by the state, which failed to turn over revenues to the schools since at least 1994, according to the state. Those school systems sued in August to regain the money from the state and are now in settlement talks. The money remains in a bank pending a resolution of the lawsuit. Though those lands are managed differently, the dispute is relevant to Mobile County in that city and county school systems are arguing over who gets how much money from those lands. The statewide battle is largely taking place in Covington County, where the Covington County School Board disagrees with the Opp and Andalusia school systems about how $8.2 million generated from 16th section lands ought to be distributed. Lawyers say it will be up to a circuit judge to decide. Attorney Wesley Laird is representing the Opp School Board, which on Sept. 20 became the class representative for all city school systems seeking a share of the school lands income. Opp is entitled to a proportionate share of the county's money based on student enrollment, Laird argues. "I intend to do a lot of research into how it should be divided," Laird said. "I think we have to look back at the intent of the original legislation. We think the intent had to do with ensuring that all of the population got an adequate education." On the other side is the Covington County School System, which is the class representative for all county school systems in the lawsuit, and which is represented by Allen Woodard. The county is willing to share revenue from the public lands with the city school systems, Woodard said. The dis agreement, however, is over how to do that. He maintains that it should be a geographical determination, an argument based on old township lines. When townships were abolished in 1975, state law dictated that no school system would lose control of 16th section lands or income from them. So if a township remains entirely in the county, money generated from the 16th section should go to the county schools, Woodard maintains. If it is within the city limits, it should be divided between city and county schools depending on what portion is in the city limits and what portion is in the county. If the township were entirely in the city limits, all the revenue generated by that land would go to the city, Woodard said. If his argument were to be embraced in Mobile County, the north cities would benefit, especially if they could prove that the lands just outside Satsuma are within its original township. That parcel is one of the most lucrative in Mobile County, said David Maxime, the school system's coordinator for land management. While revenue fluctuates from year to year, it brought it $1.1 million last year, nearly a third of all revenue generated by 16th section lands. If the land were divided according to enrollment, however, the north cities with their inferior numbers would not gain as much. "How all this works out for Mobile County, gosh I wish I had a crystal ball because it's a thorny issue," Woodard said. Meanwhile, Satsuma mayor Bush said that if additional local dollars are needed for a city school system, he believes locals will ante up. "Ninety-five percent of the people would say, 'Yes, we'll support the schools with an other property tax,'" he said.
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