The school board has approved it, and the city council has rejected it. It’s not clear what will happen next.
At issue is a resolution unanimously approved by the Oak Ridge Board of Education on Monday and informally rejected by City Council a week earlier.
The resolution would allow the city’s school system to keep a portion of more than $700,000 in Anderson County sales tax revenues generated each year under a sales tax increase approved by voters in rural areas and Norris in 2006.
Until recently, all the money had been used to help pay down the debt on the $66 million renovation of the Oak Ridge High School.
But in a months-long dispute, school officials say they should be able to keep that portion of the new county revenues that has been generated outside the city of Oak Ridge.
“We feel like this supports the intent of the original referendum to use the sales tax money for debt financing,” Board of Education Chairman Keys Fillauer said Tuesday.
He was referring to a referendum in 2004, when Oak Ridge voters overwhelmingly agreed to raise the city’s sales tax rate by a half-cent to help pay for the high school renovation.
Two years after that referendum, voters in rural areas and Norris approved a county sales tax rate increase that superseded the Oak Ridge increase.
Municipal officials say the county sales tax increase effectively took away from the city, and they think the new county revenues, including those generated outside the city, should be used for debt repayments.
Fillauer said school board attorney Chuck Cagle supports the board’s position.
School officials will sign the resolution the board approved Monday and send it to Council, Fillauer said.
“We’ll go from there,” he said.
He said school officials will pay the city the portion of the Anderson County tax revenues that have been collected in Oak Ridge.
Previous stories on Oak Ridge Today previewed the Oak Ridge Board of Education vote and covered the Oak Ridge City Council vote.
Anne Garcia Garland says
If the school board paid over the sales taxes for the 1/2% for several years running, what has caused them to now change their minds about what the right thing to do is? What a judge might say may not be the same thing the voters will say.
Sam says
The unstable leadership of the school board is once again making it’s self known. Their arrogance just kinda’ takes one’s breath away. There goes any chance of securing a new preschool which is what should be on their minds, not screwing the taxpayors.