Editor's Note: This story is republished with permission from The Trussville Tribune.
TRUSSVILLE — Trussville residents have voted against a proposed property tax increase that would have gone toward funding three major Trussville City Schools expansion projects, according to the unofficial election results released by the city Tuesday night.
The proposed 12.9 mill increase would have brought Trussville’s millage rate for schools up to 75 mills.
According to the unofficial results, 5,317 community members turned out to vote in the city-wide special municipal tax election.
Roughly 2,232 voted in favor of the proposed increase, and 3,085 voted against it, or 58.02% opposed.
Ninety residents voted absentee in the election.
The full unofficial election results by polling place are:
Civic Center: 618-640
North Park: 516-866
City Hall: 169-243
Trussville First Baptist Church: 566-741
Faith Community Fellowship: 336-532
Absentee: 27-63
“Well at this point, obviously, I’m really disappointed for our students and teachers that have been put in some of these situations, but I do appreciate the turnout quite honestly, I think it shows our community is engaged,” Mayor Buddy Choat said after the results came in.
“I think we got our message out. I hope we did because obviously, it didn’t resonate with as many people as we were hoping, but I think we gotta respect those that voted, how they did, and I appreciate everybody’s efforts that was put into this.
“I think we’ll just wake up tomorrow morning, and we’ll have Dr. Martin, the board, and myself maybe talk about it and see what the next step may be,” he added.
Despite the property tax increase failing, Choat said the city and the school district would keep pushing for the three expansion projects as TCS continues to face challenges with overcrowding in all of its schools.
The projects include a new elementary school at Glendale Farms, upgrades to Hewitt-Trussville Middle School’s kitchen, cafeteria, gymnasium, and special needs classroom, and the addition of a C-Wing at Hewitt-Trussville High School, which would add over 20 new classrooms.
“These are three projects that have to be done, so I think what we need to look at is a different path, an immediate path number one is to maybe address the most immediate need, and I don’t know this, nobody’s told me, but it appears the high school with 106% capacity may be the first route, but we’ll sit down and map it out and kind of see what we need to do,” Choat said.
Trussville's current millage rate of 62.1 sits between Gardendale at 60.1 and Bessemer at 68.7.
In comparison, Mountain Brook’s millage is 109, Vestavia Hills's is 92.6, Homewood's is 75, and Hoover's is 72.6.
If approved by voters, annual property taxes would have increased by about $129 for a home valued at $100,000 and by $645 for a home valued at $500,000.
The increase would have brought in about $90 million in funding over the next 30 years, which would have gone solely to the three projects.
In 2014, Trussville voted 2,812-1,935 in favor of the seven mil Trussville School Tax, which funded Magnolia Elementary School and Cahaba Elementary School.
In 2022, Trussville voted in favor of its renewal, 1,688-292.
The Trussville City Council will officially certify the election results at a special meeting next Tuesday.
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