Madison City/Limestone County Tax, Schools, etc. (Huntsville, Decatur: buying a house, buying)

[AWall_0410]

Can anyone shed some light on what all the disputes between Madison City, Huntsville, Limestone County over the tax dollars actually might mean for the folks that live west of County Line -- or Madison City/Limestone County? Besides the obvious loss of tax dollars, I mean. Is there any chance that those areas might ever be taken back out of Madison city school systems? We are looking at buying a house and my son will start kindergarten in the fall of 2017. I don't want to even bother looking over there if there's some chance that rezoning outside Madison city will happen. We want to be in the city limits for the school system. I realize the obvious solution to this is to buy east of County Line but I want to know what I'm looking at here. We love Heritage Provence (if anything would ever become available out there) but it's Limestone County. Thanks!!

[djmaxwell]

Originally Posted by AWall_0410

Can anyone shed some light on what all the disputes between Madison City, Huntsville, Limestone County over the tax dollars actually might mean for the folks that live west of County Line -- or Madison City/Limestone County? Besides the obvious loss of tax dollars, I mean. Is there any chance that those areas might ever be taken back out of Madison city school systems? We are looking at buying a house and my son will start kindergarten in the fall of 2017. I don't want to even bother looking over there if there's some chance that rezoning outside Madison city will happen. We want to be in the city limits for the school system. I realize the obvious solution to this is to buy east of County Line but I want to know what I'm looking at here. We love Heritage Provence (if anything would ever become available out there) but it's Limestone County. Thanks!!

Deannexation would be out of the question, so I don't know how they would remove those areas from the city school system.

[LCTMadison]

No, no chance of any areas being deannexed out of Madison.

You'll just basically be sending your tax dollars to Limestone County and their schools until this is resolved. If they cannot resolve it, you'll probably see taxes in Madison go up to recoup lost tax dollars from the Limestone residents.

[AWall_0410]

Thanks!! I appreciate the responses!

[cooldiver]

Seems like the court-ordered mediation may be bearing some fruit:

Limestone tax dispute could be resolved soon | Limestone County | decaturdaily.com

Hopefully the parties can come to a solution. It just doesn't seem right that Limestone County and Athens school systems pocket money for students who attend other school systems. And I expect that Limestone County makes money from all of the development that Huntsville and Madison have stimulated, both in and out of their city limits.

Limestone County schools complain that they have to educate the students in the county areas that Huntsville and Madison don't want. Madison County schools have to do the same, and they seem to do it just fine.

"Athens and Limestone school officials have argued the cut would be devastating for their students.In one court filing, they argued the defendants were blind to the plight of the Limestone County Board of Education, whose borders are constantly annexed while they still educate every child in unincorporated parts of the county that Madison and Huntsville do not find desirable."

The above statement is a bit over the top, as Madison and Huntsville can only annex willing property owners, and Madison's annexation options are severely limited as they are now surrounded by Huntsville city limits.

As to the possibilities of de-annexation, I was here in the mid eighties when the "annexation wars" started. Almost every night on the news, a major annexation would be announced. Athens City and Limestone County governments were both very unhappy.

At that time, there was talk of voting in a metropolitan government for Limestone County. That would have dissolved the annexed areas of Decatur, Madison, and Huntsville in Limestone County as those municipalities are all based in Morgan or Madison Counties.

But I expect the ship has sailed long ago on that possibility. Our local legislators would bottle it up in committee, and as the populations of Madison and Huntsville grow in Limestone County a vote might fail. I would bet those populations would vote almost unanimously to stay in their respective cities and would not want to be abruptly reverted into unincorporated Limestone County.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by cooldiver

Seems like the court-ordered mediation may be bearing some fruit:

Limestone tax dispute could be resolved soon | Limestone County | decaturdaily.com

Hopefully the parties can come to a solution. It just doesn't seem right that Limestone County and Athens school systems pocket money for students who attend other school systems. And I expect that Limestone County makes money from all of the development that Huntsville and Madison have stimulated, both in and out of their city limits.

Limestone County schools complain that they have to educate the students in the county areas that Huntsville and Madison don't want. Madison County schools have to do the same, and they seem to do it just fine.

"Athens and Limestone school officials have argued the cut would be devastating for their students.In one court filing, they argued the defendants were blind to the plight of the Limestone County Board of Education, whose borders are constantly annexed while they still educate every child in unincorporated parts of the county that Madison and Huntsville do not find desirable."

The above statement is a bit over the top, as Madison and Huntsville can only annex willing property owners, and Madison's annexation options are severely limited as they are now surrounded by Huntsville city limits.

As to the possibilities of de-annexation, I was here in the mid eighties when the "annexation wars" started. Almost every night on the news, a major annexation would be announced. Athens City and Limestone County governments were both very unhappy.

At that time, there was talk of voting in a metropolitan government for Limestone County. That would have dissolved the annexed areas of Decatur, Madison, and Huntsville in Limestone County as those municipalities are all based in Morgan or Madison Counties.

But I expect the ship has sailed long ago on that possibility. Our local legislators would bottle it up in committee, and as the populations of Madison and Huntsville grow in Limestone County a vote might fail. I would bet those populations would vote almost unanimously to stay in their respective cities and would not want to be abruptly reverted into unincorporated Limestone County.

Many cities span multiple counties. I don't see why it's such a big deal.