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The Butler County Commission delivered a resolution on May 9, formalizing its commitment to grant a portion of simplified sellers use tax to the county’s schools.

“This is [a resolution] for our simplified sellers use tax (SSUT) which the County Commission and the Board of Education reached an agreement on,” said Commissioner Jesse McWilliams. “It basically states, ‘Wherein the Butler County Commission agrees to give the Butler County Board of Education 25% of its monthly simplified seller’s use tax, and whereas the 25% will start with the fiscal year 2023-2024, the first payment for October 2023 SSUT tax will be made in November 2023’ and it is signed by all the commissioners.”

Butler County Schools Superintendent Joseph Eiland received the resolution and thank the commissioners for the funding he said would benefit the county’s children for many years to come.

“First, I want to say thank you,” Eiland said. “I talked with a couple of you long and hard about this thing and the fact that it was a long conversation but not a hard one is a blessing. This is one of those situations where this commission just stepped up and put something in place that’s going to benefit children for years and years and years to come.”

Eiland assured commissioners the funds would not be used in any way except to benefit the students and to ensure their safety. He commended commissioners for their willingness to provide much-needed funding.

“People all across the state of Alabama have actually sued commissions and had to sue commissions to get this kind of help,” Eiland said. “There was never anything like that in this district. This commission has stepped up and said, ‘We want to do this.’ And, we just appreciate you guys from the bottom of our hearts. We thank ya’ll so much.”

McWilliams pointed out that Commissioner Joey Peavy chaired the commission when discussions began and worked tirelessly towards putting the agreement in place.

“Commissioner Peavy was chairman when this was going on,” McWilliams said. “He worked very hard to get this agreement made with help from the resource officers and the whole commission. “

Eiland said the money will be used, in part, to fund resource officers for schools in the south end of the county. 

“It will be used for other safety issues as well, like girding up some entrances i nour schools and so forth that we don’t have funds to do,” Eiland said.

McWilliams confirmed the commission will not control how the money is spent and Eiland assured the commissioners the school system would report on expenditures paid with SSUT tax dollars.

Peavy agreed with Eiland that the agreement came with ease, something which is not the norm in other counties.

“I know you hear a lot of horror stories about commissions, school boards and superintendents butting heads in battle on issues but I will say Mr. Joe was not exaggerating on bit,” Peavy said. “We had very little issue. We came to a gentleman’s agreement. I compliment him on how well he was to work with on this.”