ing to the settlement agreement, local schools must now pay back nearly $3.4 million to the steel company. On Monday, the Mobile County Public School Board signed off on paying Outokumpu $3.1 million.
School board members say the millions they have to pay now is money already spent. Outokumpu protested and appealed in court tax assessments for 2015-2018. "What could you use $3.1 million to do if you were a school system? We could pay for programs. We could hire more teachers. We could add more facilities, things like that. So obviously, we're not very happy about having to do this, because we depend on local taxes," said school board member Don Stringfellow.
Outokumpu has filed other tax appeals that have not been settled yet. According to the company's attorney, assessments for 2019-2022 are currently being audited, and they will "negotiate a similar settlement" after they learn the results. However, according to the settlement agreement reached for 2015-2018 assessments, any future reimbursement would be in the "form of future tax credits" not cash payments.