Act of Alabama 2015-226

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Act of Alabama 2015-226 is a local act, applying only to Jefferson County, which was sponsored in the House by Oliver Robinson (D-District 58) during the 2015 Alabama legislative session. The law was partly intended to assuage the loss of revenues from the former Jefferson County Occupational Tax. The Community Service Fund act was signed into law by Governor Robert Bentley on May 27, 2015.

The law authorizes the the Jefferson County Commission to levy a 1% sales and use tax. The tax took the place of the 1% sales tax previously levied by the county to fund repayment of $1.05 billion of Limited Obligation School Warrants issued under the leadership of Jefferson County Commission president Larry Langford in 2004 and 2005.

Collection of the Education Sales Tax was ended at midnight on July 31, 2017, and collection of the new Special Revenue Sales Tax began at 12:01 AM on August 1. The change did not affect taxpayers as the overall rate remained the same, but did require businesses and other entities that collect sales and use taxes to file their returns differently. The tax generates approximately $130 million in annual revenues.

According to the law, the revenues from the tax first went to pay off the existing or refinanced school warrants, which has been budgeted at $26 million per year. Second, any remaining proceeds, up to $36.3 million, would go to the county's general fund. Third, the next $18 million would be set aside in a "2015 Sales Tax Fund" for distribution to public schools operated by or within the county. The Jefferson County Community Service Fund was created by the act and funded from the next $3.6 million raised. The next $2 million would go to the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority (dropping to $1 million after ten years), and then $500,000 to the Birmingham Zoo, with any surplus amount (currently around $44 million) going back to the general fund.

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