County Commission seeks AG’s opinion on proposed levy – Brewton Standard

Putting an ad valorem tax to the vote of the people is not such a simple request.
At recent Escambia County Commission meetings, members of the Escambia County Health Authority asked if adding an ad-valorem tax might be put to a vote. The request was made to hopefully create some revenue for a struggling healthcare situation locally. The request was a 4-mile property tax for county hospitals.
At Monday’s Commission meeting, the group agreed to send a request to the Attorney General’s Office seeking an opinion on whether the county has the ability to place such a measure on the ballot for consideration by voters .
In a workshop session last Tuesday, commissioners heard from Chairman Raymond Wiggins about moving forward with an application.
“We got a letter from HCA’s attorney asking us to vote for a tax increase,” Wiggins said. “But, we need the AG’s opinion to make sure we are clear about going forward with the Authority.”
Wiggins told commissioners that HCA would have to send a formal letter requesting an AG opinion on the matter.
“The letter we got from their attorney was not what we asked for,” Wiggins said. “When we receive this request, we can move forward with seeking the AG’s approval.”
As this request came to the Commission between Tuesday’s workshop and Monday’s meeting, the group agreed to move forward to seek the Attorney General’s opinion.
Two bills are currently in effect that were passed by the Alabama Legislature in 1947. These bills led to the current 4 mill tax in Escambia County. A statewide 4 mile tax bill was also voted on.
The Commission is currently seeking the opinion of the Attorney General to determine whether, with those current bills in place, to see if the commission has the right to place the item on the ballot to collect an additional 4 mill levy.
In the rest of Monday’s work, the Commission:
• approved a competitive tender for the public works prison roof. Sheriff Heath Jackson told commissioners the 34-year-old building is leaking and it will take about a third of the cost of the building to replace the roof.
• approved the appointment of President Wiggins as a representative of the ACCA 2024 Legislative Committee;
• approved a contract with a Harris Local Government proposal for Smart Fusion Software Solutions to transfer data from the legacy Delta system to an updated data system at an initial cost of $92,000 with an annual fee of $35,000 over the life of the contract five years;
• approved the submission of the FY 2025 Rebuild Alabama County Transportation Plan to include James Road and Bethel Road/County Rd. 19 of the project. Other areas will also be considered under the new FY project;
• approved the Mill Creek Subdivision Plat;
• approved the addition of Michael Baker International and Civil Southeast LLC to the on-call engineering list;
• approved the South Alabama Mutual Aid Agreement. Sheriff Jackson said the agreement will mean mutual aid in times of disaster for all 67 counties in the state, including Escambia. “When other counties have disasters, we send our guys to cook and help,” Jackson said. “With this agreement, they would come to our aid in a time of need.”
• approved a tripartite agreement for Jail Warden services.