Metro Roundup: Vestavia Hills school board asks for property tax increase

The Vestavia Hills Board of Education on Monday voted to seek a 9.8-mill increase in the city's property taxes to generate an extra $8.4 million a year for the school system.

Superintendent Todd Freeman said the tax increase would help pay for a litany of new programs and offerings for students, as well as numerous improvements and additions to a number of campuses that are part of the 1Rebel 1Future plan. Sixty-one percent of the new revenue would go toward existing facility and campus improvements, while 22% would go toward education programs and another 17% to operational costs, school officials said.

Vestavia Hills property owners now pay 92.6 mills in property taxes. A mill is one-tenth of one cent, currently expressed in Vestavia Hills as 0.0926. The millage rate is multiplied by the assessed value of a home — which is equal to 10% of a home’s appraised value — in order to determine how much a homeowner owes in property taxes. 

An additional 9.8 mills would mean an additional $490 annually, or $40.83 monthly, in property taxes for a home appraised at $500,000, around the median price of a Vestavia Hills home.

The request now moves to the Vestavia Hills City Council, which then would ask the Legislature and governor to call a citywide election to let residents vote on the proposed tax increase. The school board is asking for a citywide vote on May 9, Freeman said.

The Vestavia Hills City Council is tentatively scheduled to introduce the issue at its Jan. 9 meeting and vote on it at the Jan. 23 meeting.

Freeman previously said he would not request a 10-mill increase, which is what Mountain Brook voters approved in 2019 to fund improvements for public schools there.

If approved by the Vestavia Hills City Council, Legislature, governor and Vestavia Hills voters, the school board likely would borrow money for improvements and use revenue from the new tax increase to repay the debt over 30 years at $8.2 million a year, said Whit McGhee, the school system's director of public relations. The tax increase would remain in perpetuity for future system needs, McGhee said.