Madison County Commission Votes To Sue City
(April 23, 2014) JACKSON Tenn – At Monday night's County Commission meeting commissioners went into closed door session with their attorney and when they came out they voted to file suit against the city of Jackson.
The suit is for all the back due mixed drink liquor tax dollars that were earmarked for education but never paid.
Jackson is not the only city to have not forwarded tax dollars. Over 40 cities in Tennessee face the problem of owing years of tax dollars.
Tennessee Comptroller's office has not been able to explain how the oversight was not picked up by auditors years after year of state audit reports.
The decision to file suit was prompted by last Thursday's legislative action in Nashville before the end of session. In a bill passed by both Senate and House regarding collection of past due funds one of the conditions was that after a June deadline court relief could only be sought for monies due between 1999 and 2014. By not filing suit the county risked losing 7 years of prior tax dollars.
Before legislators addressed the issue the city had been in talks with the school board on how to resolve the debt. Mayor Jerry Gist had been working with the JMCSS Superintendent on an amount of approximately $3.2 – $3.6 million dollars.
The action by the commission means all talks between the school system and mayor's office will no longer continue instead the city and county will meet in a Davidson County courtroom if the differences can;t be resolved.
