Property tax renewal for schools up for vote in Elmore County

ELMORE COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) - A major vote awaits Elmore County residents on the day residents vote in the presidential election on Nov. 3. It involves the county school district and a tax renewal.

Nearly 30 years ago Elmore County residents approved a one mill property tax. It comes up again in two weeks, a mill that’s part of the overall 10 mills that generate around $10 million a year for public schools.

“This 10 mills is currently voted 10 mills. We did a renewal on the others. This has to be passed by two-thirds majority vote and so this will be the one mill necessary for the renewal process to have 10 voting mills," said Elmore County Public School Superintendent Richard Dennis.

It’s important to remember this is not a new tax. It’s a tax renewal, and it’s good for 30 more years if it’s approved.

“This is just to maintain currently what we have," Dennis said.

Elmore County has 15 schools with more than 11,000 students and just short of 1,500 employees.

“To give you a perspective on how we rank, there are 138 school systems in the state, so if you take all the revenues and you divide it by the number of students... we ranked 135 per pupil expenditures," said Dennis.

There appears to be no organized opposition to the property tax renewal.

Copyright 2020 WSFA 12 News. All rights reserved.