During an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5 on Wednesday, Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon defended his city's system to split from the Baldwin County Public School system.
At stake is a share of Baldwin County's 40% one-cent sales tax for the Orange Beach and Gulf Shores school system. Legislation brought by State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine) and State Rep. Francis Holk-Jones (R-Foley) would grant the two municipal systems a share.
Detractors of their effort claim such legislation violates the deal the two municipalities made with the counties when they broke away.
However, Kennon insists that such a deal never existed and there was merit in Orange Beach's decision to split from the county system.
"I'm trying to be diplomatic, but it's a lie. Chris Elliott, Robert Craft and others would not have told me that six years ago — that it was going to be readjusted in 2024 by something Chris would submit legislative-wise if it wasn't true. There's just no logic in somebody making up a lie six years ago. I just don't believe it. I believe Chris, I believe Robert. I know for a fact when— as far as I'm concerned, it was a fact that when the settlement agreement was made, part of it was that they were going to reevaluate and readjust the tax to accommodate new school systems. And any city in this county should be concerned about it because eventually there's going to be a breakaway, a breakaway especially as they see the success we're having in the city school system, because we know that anything, the more local something becomes, the more efficient it becomes. And we've proven that over and over, you know. County hovers around 24, 25, 26th in the state. In two years of being a city system, we went to number five, number six. I mean, it just works better when everything's local."
"And, you know, I'm biased because the county system is an NEA-AEA controlled system. It's the Democrat system. It's the liberal system. It's more about managing mediocrity than it is excellence. And then I hate that. Especially in Baldwin County, which has a degree of influence. We should be doing much better. But the promise was made to reallocate. The promise was made to reallocate 2024."
Jeff Poor is the editor-in-chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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