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Judge Gerald Martin ruled the trust certificates for the Simpson County School District are validated. According to Judge Martin, the Simpson County School District did meet all the requirements of the statue.
Four Simpson County Tax payers, Ray Floyd, Lee McCoy, Thomas Ray Floyd, and Jason McCoy, appealed the decision to validate the Capital lease. The hearing was held Thursday, June 30, 2022 in Raleigh. After lunch the hearing was moved to Mendenhall and continued on Friday in Mendenhall when the ruling was announced.
The four Simpson County citizens appealed the following legal announcement which was published in the Magee Courier in June: The VALIDATION OF $27,625,000 (MAXIMUM PRINCIPAL AMOUNT) SIMPSON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, SIMPSON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI TRUST CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2022 (EVIDENCING PROPORTIONATE INTERESTS IN A GENERAL OBLIGATION LEASE).
Judge David Shoemake set the appeal hearing for June 30, 2022 before Judge Gerald Martin.
Simpson County School Board Attorney Wesla A. Sullivan with co-counselors Attorney Jim Young and Attorney Warren Greenlee of theYoung Law Group represented the Simpson County School District.
During the hearing, three witness were called : Dr. Toriano Holloway, SCSD Superintendent of Education, Derek Arrington, and Spence Flatgard.
Derek Arrington reviews bond packages for validation. All validations were properly followed by the school district.
Spence Flatgard duties were to review transcripts and make sure everything was in order.
The questioning by the named Simpson County taxpayers was over the word “note” used in the publication. The word lease, note, bond are all words that are interchangeable.
The Simpson county School District did meet all of the requirements of the statute according to Judge Martin.
The Honorable Judge Martin ruled the proposed capital lease should be validated.
Sue Note: The SCSD had locked into an interest rate that was valid for 60 days ending July 8, 2022. Due to the appeal, the time line with the locked interest rate is now in question. Since the original locked interest rate was given, rates have increased three times to date which could result in SCSD paying a higher interest rate for the capital lease.
MageeNews.com is an online news source serving Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.
