PIEDMONT – Piedmont mayor Bill Baker said he had to do a lot of soul searching over the past few days concerning a recently proposed bill by the Calhoun County Commission. The bill would have kept a prorated portion of each municipality’s ad valorem taxes to help finance the county’s budgets, a plan that drew criticism from local mayors, including Baker.

During Tuesday’s Piedmont city council meeting, Baker explained his decision not to go along with the commission’s proposed plan.

“What they were trying to do was get the municipalities to contribute some funds. This was going to be from the city itself, from the fire department, and from the school,” Baker said. “I think the amount they wanted from the City of Piedmont was $6,200, from the fire department $3,200, and from the school $15,000.

“I had mixed feelings about this from the beginning. (District 5 Commissioner) Lee Patterson has been extremely good to us in providing services for the city. He’s done a lot of paving for us over the years. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate him, and what he’s done for us. I did have some concerns that they were trying to pull money from the three areas I just mentioned.”

Baker said he was torn between the services the city was getting from the commission and his commitment to the city itself. In the end, Baker said he just couldn’t side with the commission.

“There were some concerns we didn’t know about this (proposed plan) initially. It went on for two or three weeks before we actually found out about it. That bothered me too,” Baker said. “I hope they come up with another plan and I hope they’ll be vocal, visible and transparent with this plan so that we will know what’s going on. I think when we all sit around the table and talk we can make good things happen, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with the way it was handled. I didn’t feel comfortable taking monies away from the city, the fire department and the school, so I went in the direction of the city and not of the direction of the county.

“I knew Lee was pushing for his county, and my thought was I had to push for my city,” Baker said. “What I did, I contacted Lee and told him I appreciate what you do, but I’m committed to the city. These are the people who elected me. This is where I live. This is my school. This is my city. This is my fire department. I can’t vote to take money away from them.”

Baker said Patterson understood his point of view.

“This is just the way I felt it needed to be handled on my part,” Baker said. “This was the stuff I expressed to Lee, and he understood. This whole thing ended up dying on the vine anyway. With everything that happened, there was no support for this. The commission actually reneged on following through. It worked out well for the mayors and what we were not wanting to see happen, as far as money being taken from these three areas. It worked out well.

“I’m not faulting anybody. We have a great commission. I like them. Lee has been especially good to us. I do appreciate what he’s done for us.”

WEIS Radio News received the following response from Calhoun County Administrator Mark Tyner: 

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The intent of the proposed legislation was to distribute the costs of 
the operation of the License and Revenue Offices over all entities 
receiving ad valorem tax monies collected by those offices.

At present, Calhoun County alone is responsible for funding the vast 
majority of the expenses associated with collecting these monies. With 
the passage of the proposed legislation, each entity would have only 
been responsible for the cost associated with the percentage of revenue 
they receive from these offices and Calhoun County would have still been 
the largest contributor.

After careful consideration, the County will not pursue a request to the 
delegation to introduce the proposed legislation. However, it is 
important to note, the Commission has no authority to create a revenue 
stream, but must receive authorization through the State Legislature to 
address county needs.

Also, in early discussions of the bill, a considerable amount of thought 
was given to each entity potentially affected by the passage of this 
bill. The 1 Cent sales tax, which was implemented directly by the County 
Commission on behalf of the County school system and all municipal 
school systems, has generated a total of more than $162,000,000 for all 
school children since its inception in 2009. The amount received 
continues to increase on a yearly basis.

Records also indicate no other entity affected by the proposed 
legislation would have seen, what is believed, to be a detrimental loss 
of revenue.

Thank you,

Mark E. Tyner
County Administrator
Calhoun County, Alabama