Representatives of Dallas County, the city of Selma and both the city and county school systems met Friday to discuss a proposed bill that would change how the county’s half-cent sales tax for schools is divided.

The proposed bill, which has yet to be introduced, would repeal the county’s half-cent sale tax and replace it with another.

Currently, revenue from the current half-cent sales tax is split almost down the middle based off student population.

According to Rep. Darrio Melton, all parties came to an agreement and are expected to move forward, but the details have yet to be released.

Melton said he expects a statement containing the compromise to be released by Monday at the latest.

The county first passed the half-cent tax in 2012 with the intention to fund county schools in order to meet a state law requiring school systems to have one month’s operating expenses set aside.

“The Dallas County [School] System was in really bad shape,” said Sen. Hank Sanders.

“And since the money was intended for the Dallas County School System, what the bill says is that the Dallas County Commission would be authorized to put on a half-cent sales tax, but only if they withdrew the half-cent sales tax that was put on several years ago.”

Auditors discovered in 2014 that the tax should have bee distributed between county and city schools evenly, after county schools had already collected $2 million.

According to Melton, state law says the county would need permission from the legislature in order to allocate the money to just the county school system since there is more than one system in the district.

“For the county to get back tot heir original intention, they have to pass state legislation that would allow them to allocate the funding where they intended,” Melton said.

Superintendents Don Willigham and Angela Mangum couldn’t be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Melton said he expects the new, agreed-on bill to be introduced sometime next week.

Look for updates on the bill in Tuesday’s newspaper and online at www.selmatimesjournal.com.