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Sarah Killian‏ @SarahWVTM13 47m47 minutes ago

BREAKING: State supreme court rules in Jefferson County's favor, allows county to refinance 1-cent sales tax originally intended for schools

This should officially open the door for the bjcc stadium project to proceed. Hopefully we'll hear news soon.

Ever since the Republican dominated Jeffco Commission has taken over, they have wanted to get their paws on the money for schools to turn to their own self interests. Now they have succeeded.

They wanted the Jeffco Commission to give the state delegation a part of the occupation tax revenue for their own slush fund" use but were refused. As a result they got the occupation tax abolished in 1999 and the county has struggled financially ever since.

Now they have gotten the help of the party faithful Alabama SC to give the 1% sales tax revenue to them to do with as they please instead of to the schools in Jeffco. A few suburban enclave districts have the local funds to make up any loss, but not most of the dozen of them.

Since the state SC is effectively a "lap dog" of the state party, they will always get whatever rulings they want from them. If the county's political leaders want to build the BJCC stadium, we can hope it will get built soon. If they don't ... well Legion Field and the 1970s vintage BJCC are still there.

I'm not a financial wizard, but when this sales tax refinance was first proposed interest rates were very low. Now, with the Fed raising the interest rates, won't the $ amount realized will be less than the original $60M...

Yes, they need to do a refinance as fast as possible. The fed is expected to raise interest rates two more times this year.

(03-17-2017 02:56 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Yes, they need to do a refinance as fast as possible. The fed is expected to raise interest rates two more times this year.

Does that mean the dozen school districts of Jeffco will be less harmed by this derailment / diversion of their tax funds income?

Oliver Robinson said on facebook that Jeffco's finance team is planning on moving fast and will be meeting with bankers on wall street Monday.

(03-17-2017 05:08 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(03-17-2017 02:56 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Yes, they need to do a refinance as fast as possible. The fed is expected to raise interest rates two more times this year.

Does that mean the dozen school districts of Jeffco will be less harmed by this derailment / diversion of their tax funds income?

The schools already got their money when the bonds were sold in the first place. This isn't diverting a penny from schools.

(03-17-2017 02:11 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Ever since the Republican dominated Jeffco Commission has taken over, they have wanted to get their paws on the money for schools to turn to their own self interests. Now they have succeeded.

They wanted the Jeffco Commission to give the state delegation a part of the occupation tax revenue for their own slush fund" use but were refused. As a result they got the occupation tax abolished in 1999 and the county has struggled financially ever since.

Now they have gotten the help of the party faithful Alabama SC to give the 1% sales tax revenue to them to do with as they please instead of to the schools in Jeffco. A few suburban enclave districts have the local funds to make up any loss, but not most of the dozen of them.

Since the state SC is effectively a "lap dog" of the state party, they will always get whatever rulings they want from them. If the county's political leaders want to build the BJCC stadium, we can hope it will get built soon. If they don't ... well Legion Field and the 1970s vintage BJCC are still there.

I can't speak for every system, but I know from first hand experience that Birmingham City Schools spent their 1 cent funds allotment already.

(03-19-2017 09:36 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(03-17-2017 05:08 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(03-17-2017 02:56 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Yes, they need to do a refinance as fast as possible. The fed is expected to raise interest rates two more times this year.

Does that mean the dozen school districts of Jeffco will be less harmed by this derailment / diversion of their tax funds income?

The schools already got their money when the bonds were sold in the first place. This isn't diverting a penny from schools.

My understanding is that there was an original intention of providing a continuing tax revenue income to renovate or replace the older public schools in all Jeffco school districts rather than only a one shot funding deal.

(03-20-2017 01:28 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 09:36 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(03-17-2017 05:08 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(03-17-2017 02:56 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Yes, they need to do a refinance as fast as possible. The fed is expected to raise interest rates two more times this year.

Does that mean the dozen school districts of Jeffco will be less harmed by this derailment / diversion of their tax funds income?

The schools already got their money when the bonds were sold in the first place. This isn't diverting a penny from schools.

My understanding is that there was an original intention of providing a continuing tax revenue income to renovate or replace the older public schools in all Jeffco school districts rather than only a one shot funding deal.

They sold bonds against the tax, it wasn't a continuous income stream to the school systems. Now, maybe they have been promised additional bonds when the current ones pay off? I don't know, but the money they were originally promised was given to them, and the refinancing is simply saving money on interest, and using those savings on things like the BJCC, etc.

Now, you can argue whether or not that money would be better spent on schools, but that's beyond the scope of this thread or my post. In the end, no money has been "taken away" from any of the county school systems. They've gotten every penny they were promised.