BREAKING: County commissioners vote to sue city over school funding decision

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — County Commissioners voted Wednesday morning to sue the city of Jackson over a City Council vote to reallocate $12 million the city had been giving the school system for years.

The motion passed during the closed meeting with 20 votes in favor, none against and five absent.

“We’ll file suit, we’ll ask for an injunction or a stay to in essence freeze everything right where it is, today or before they made their decision,” Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris said.

Commissioners also passed a motion to allocate $25,000 for the lawsuit.

“Clearly there is an obligation here, an agreement that the parties have been operating under, including the city, for many years,” County Attorney Steve Maroney said. “So we think again that this is something that unfortunately we are going to have to ask the court to enforce.”

Members of the Jackson City Council approved the resolution May 18 during a specially called meeting. The resolution will keep $12 million in tax money for the city which it had previously been giving to the Jackson-Madison County School System.

“If we don’t get that injunction or that stay, then we have to assume that we are not getting that $12 million,” Mayor Harris said. “We’ve got to come up with the funds, we have to come up with appropriations to do that, whether that’s a property tax increase or a wheel tax or both.”

The city’s resolution passed with six in favor, one against and one abstaining. Vicki Foote (District 1) abstained, Charles Rahm (District 8) voted no and David Cisco was not present.

Council members who voted in favor of the resolution are Johnny Lee Dodd, Ernest Brooks II, Harvey Buchanan, Scott Conger, Charles “Pepper” Bray and Randy Wallace.

Maroney says he plans to file the suit, more than likely with the Chancery Court, in the next four business days.

They are requesting to have this resolved before July 1 when the new budget must go into effect.

The commission also passed a third motion to search for additional legal counsel.