HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — The Huntsville City Council recently approved its 2026 budget, paving the way for the potential for more school funding.
Prior to approving the budget, the council approved two budget amendments. One budget amendment will take additional Simplified Sellers Use Tax revenue and put 30% towards Huntsville City Schools.
“We were incredibly grateful for the collaboration among Huntsville City Council members,” Huntsville City Schools Board of Education Vice President Ryan Renaud said.
He explained that Simplified Sellers Use Tax, or SSUT, is essentially an online shopping revenue tax.
“So say you go online and order a grocery order from Target or Publix or Walmart or Aldi or any of those here in the Tennessee Valley, even if you go to that brick and mortar store to pick that order up, if you order it online, you’re not paying a 9% local sales tax, you’re actually paying an 8% SSUT or simplified seller’s use tax” Renaud said.
He said that with more and more people shopping online, local school districts are losing out.
“So prior to this proposal, Huntsville City Schools was not able to collect or reap the benefits of any of those online orders, whereas now we’re sharing a percentage of that growth with SSUT, with the city of Huntsville,” he said. “So it’s one that really goes back to that conversation about modernizing our ability to shore up our locally sourced revenue sources.”
Thanks to the budget amendment, the City of Huntsville will give Huntsville City Schools a portion of SSUT revenue if it exceeds the projection.
For example, for Fiscal Year 2026, the Huntsville City Council has budgeted $20,750,000 in SSUT revenue. If revenue exceeds that, then 70% of the excess will go to the City of Huntsville, and the remaining 30% will go to Huntsville City Schools.
While funding is not guaranteed, Renaud told News 19 that this is a great step forward.
“The goal and ultimate intent of this proposal was really to modernize our ability to generate locally funded revenue sources,” he said.
Despite the budget amendment passing, the Huntsville City Council was not unanimous in its vote. In fact, there was some drama among the council members during Thursday night’s meeting.
The initial amendment that was presented by Council President John Meredith included a section about earmarking the SSUT revenue for “new school construction”. However, after much debate, that was taken out before the vote.
Some council members also disagreed with essentially “counting their chickens before they hatch”, and planning for extra SSUT revenue, before the fiscal year even starts.
In the end, council members Meredith, Kling, and Watkins voted in favor of the budget amendment. Council members Robinson and Little voted against it.
After the amendment passed, Council President Meredith said, “Thank you Mrs. Watkins and Mr. Kling for giving a hoot about the schools.”
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