Tax renewal passes: Voters continue support for Montgomery, Pike Road public schools

After 40 years of paying a 3.5 mill countywide tax to support local public schools, Montgomery County voters decided to renew the tax for another 30 years on Tuesday.

The renewal passed with 22,000 votes, or 57.76% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Montgomery County Probate Office.

The tax annually provides about $11 million to Montgomery Public Schools and $1.2 million to Pike Road Schools. Voters last renewed it in 2004, and it was set to expire sometime in September.

"I am so thankful to our community for believing in our work, our MPS kids and their futures," MPS Superintendent Melvin Brown said in a statement on social media. "Great things ahead for us! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Prior to Tuesday’s vote, Brown and Pike Road Superintendent Keith Lankford joined forces in an attempt to educate residents about what the tax does for each of their districts.

Both districts widely publicized that a loss in that funding would place budget items like transportation, professional development for teachers and staff, extracurricular activities and athletics on the chopping block.

Brown said there was a fear that voters would misunderstand what they were voting on, believing the referendum was a tax increase instead of a continuance.

At least a few voters in Montgomery County believed that misconception to be true at the time they cast their ballots. Over 16,000 Montgomery voters voted against the renewal on Tuesday.

Willy Holdren, 67, said he voted down the referendum because he didn’t want to pay any more in taxes. “There's a lot of issues I have, a lot of them, especially with taxes,” Holdren said. “We’re paying too much in taxes already.”

Even so, the majority of Montgomery voters supported the tax.

In an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser earlier this month, Superintendent Brown said there has been a hesitancy to support public schools in the area for decades. When the ad valorem tax increase passed in 2020, though, he said MPS administration hoped that signaled a turning tide.

As evidenced by voters’ decision on Tuesday, it may have.

“This particular vote is really just about affirming what those who are in leadership are doing,” Pike Road Mayor Gordon Stone said in the week leading up to Tuesday’s election. “It is about saying we want to take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of us. We want to be prepared for the opportunities that are in front of us.”

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed spoke out in support of renewal ahead of the vote, and he celebrated its passage on Tuesday.

“Today, Montgomery voters once again sent a strong message that we believe in a well-funded, high-quality public school system,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said in a statement. “As a parent of students in public school, I am glad that their teachers and staff will continue to have the resources currently available to them for the next 30 years.

"However, I know this is still not enough to make Montgomery Public Schools the best system in the state. I look forward to continuing to work with Dr. Brown, the school board, and community partners to identify ways we can better support our students and teachers succeed.”

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery, Pike Road public schools tax renewed for another 30 years