A petition calling for a vote in regard to a potential recallable school nickel tax on real property will have its day in chambers.
Following a half hour of executive session debate Thursday evening, officials with the Trigg County Board of Education voted unanimously to authorize its attorney, Jack Lackey, submit an action in Circuit Court — challenging the sufficiency and validity of the nickel tax recall petition, and related processes and documentation.
Because Lackey and the board only have a total of 10 days upon receiving validation paperwork from the office of Trigg County Clerk Carmen Finley, filing of this action will occur either on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
While the filing of this challenge may seem like a stall tactic to push a vote from the May Primary to the November General, it’s anything but.
Sources indicate Trigg County officials aren’t seeking to challenge the validity of the signatures acquired to call for a local option vote on the tax — but the very wording of the petition itself.
More than 1,000 individuals, most of them valid but not all, signed a petition that reads as follows, per dictation from Finley:
In the eyes of the Trigg County Board of Education, and potentially with the judges of the Trigg County Circuit Court, there are two issues with this wording.
The petition states one be “for, or against, an increase in the levy of the Trigg County school district tax rate, from 52.8 cents to 58.9 cents” and that this is “an increase of 11.553% on both real and personal property.”
The word “for” is unnecessary in the petition, because the school’s board members are chosen by the people, and thus get to act in the best interests for a republic. According to KRS 132.017, Article II, Section B, “any five qualified voters, who reside in the area where the tax levy will be imposed, my commence petition proceedings to protest the passage of the ordinance, order, resolution or motion by filing an affidavit with the county clerk.”
Meaning: a petition needn’t exist, if a public is “for” the tax.
Furthermore, Trigg County’s school district tax rate isn’t 52.8 cents per $100 of assessed value. It’s 54.9 cents per $100 of assessed value — set in August of 2022, and was only a tenth-of-a-cent increase from the 2021 tax rate.
A proposed raise from 54.9 cents to 58.9 cents on $100 is a 7.3% increase, and not 11.553%, meaning the petition claims false information, or at the very least is a significant typo.
Such a filing in Trigg County Circuit Court, at this moment, seems unprecedented. A judge would be required to hear both sides of the case, before making a final determination.
The five board members for the group known as the “Trigg County Citizens Right To Vote On Tax Increases Committee” are Lisa Champion, Laura Wadlington, Kenneth Cherry, W.E. Rogers and Jeannie Rogers.
