Possible loss of sports helped vote pass
By MARK HOLAN Help us protect our freedoms from tyrants
by supporting C.R.C.R.
Staff Reporter
People on each side of Tuesday's referendum said the threatened loss of football and other after-school activities
topped the multiple reasons why Mobile County voters overcame four decades of opposition to new taxes for public
schools.
In passing the referendum by a 6-percent margin, the county stepped back from the brink of a disaster and major
embarrassment, local leaders said.
"It served as a wake-up call to a lot of citizens," said Scott Rye, associate creative director for Sullivan-St.
Clair, the Mobile advertising agency that handled the "Vote Yes" campaign.
Such consequences were absent when voters rejected efforts to increase property taxes that failed in 1988, 1992
and 1999. Before Tuesday night, voters here hadn't approved a tax increase for schools since 1961.
"There was a whole lot more attention because of the sports and bands," said University of South Alabama
political science professor and pollster Keith Nicholls. "The other factors were not as important as fundamentally
altering the offerings of the public school system."
Those other factors included:
The combination of tax options offered to voters and the late-starting opposition campaign, which was less aggressive
than in past elections.
The sting of negative national publicity.
The possibility of more than 300 teachers and other school employees joining thousands of neighbors recently laid
off from local industries.
The election date before the end of the school year and the broad coalition of civic groups that came forward to
support the referendum.
"I think it passed because of the grassroots effort," Rye said. "More groups got involved than have
ever been involved in this effort before, there were people from every walk of life."
But tax supporters risked a backlash when student participation in the campaign became an issue that one mother
complained about to the state attorney general.
"Getting so many kids involved, whether that was right or wrong, that got a lot of other people involved,"
said Greg Callahan, consultant to the anti-tax side.
"The factor of the kids and the sports and all the extracurricular activities just involves such a high number
of people that it gave them a good base," he said.
Fred Kelly, chairman of Citizens for Fair Taxation political committee, accused the "Yes" campaign of
"scare tactics" in making the case for higher taxes.
The combination of a 12-mill property tax increase in the cities of Mobile and Prichard and a 4-mill property tax
increase and a half-cent sales tax in the rest of the county is expected to bring $27.8 million annually to the
state's largest school district.
"The difference this time is that we gave the people what they asked for, and that's a choice," said
Sen. George Callahan, R-Theodore. "Give the people a choice, then you get a 'yes' vote. Now we need to talk
about tax reform, about getting the sales tax off food and reducing the size of the tax obligation that we have.
... We have enough taxes in Mobile."
The nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama recently found that state and local tax revenues in
Alabama are lower than in any other state, and are just 68 percent of the national average.
Mobile County provides only $871 per pupil in local funding, according to PARCA, while Baldwin County, for example,
spends $1,844 per student.
New revenue from the tax increase will be used to help offset a potential $15 million cut in state education funds
due to lower-than-expected state tax revenues.
"I think first of all there was more of a crisis situation because of state cuts," said Paul Hubbert,
executive secretary for the politically powerful Alabama Education Association. "And I think having the options
certainly gives people an opportunity to more or less decide how they want to fund schools."
He said his organization had been watching Mobile County's unique approach as a possible "pattern" for
other school systems needing to raise revenue.
The "Vote Yes" campaign drew more than seven times the contributions as the opposition, with most of
most of the money contributed by business interests.
"I think it worked this time because people throughout Mobile County realized they need to invest in their
education and their economic future," said Jim Apple, vice president of economic development for the Mobile
Area Chamber of Commerce.
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