With Orange Beach residents just days from deciding whether to break away from the Baldwin County school system, campaign finance filings reveal a lopsided money race between the two sides pushing their case to voters. Records filed with the Baldwin County Probate Court show a fundraising gap of more than $50,000 between the political action committees supporting and opposing the split.
The Orange Beach Committee for Educational Excellence, the group pushing for an independent city school system, reported raising $45,360 in cash donations plus another $10,762 in in-kind services since forming in mid-July. The opposing group, Citizens Opposed to School Split/Tax Increase, had raised just $3,725 since organizing in early August.
The referendum asks the city’s more than 5,500 registered voters to decide on a 5-mill property tax increase that would fund the creation of an independent Orange Beach school system, breaking away from the countywide Baldwin County system. Voting was set to take place at the Orange Beach Community Center.
Financial disclosures show the pro-split committee drew support from a broad mix of volunteers, business owners, city councilmen and real estate developers. Its two largest donors each contributed $10,000, with additional five-figure support coming from a handful of local businesses and construction firms. Several sitting city councilmen also contributed personally to the effort. The bulk of the committee’s roughly $17,000 in spending went toward signage and advertising, along with several thousand dollars paid to an out-of-state consultant for polling and campaign strategy work.
The opposition group, by contrast, relied almost entirely on smaller individual contributions, mostly in the range of $50 to $100 from its own members, with one larger donation of $720 from a pair of local residents. Its spending, totaling roughly $1,400, went toward yard signs, printed flyers and local radio advertising.
The financial imbalance underscored just how high the stakes had become for both sides heading into the vote, with supporters framing the split as a chance to build a school system tailored to Orange Beach’s needs and opponents warning of higher property taxes without a clear guarantee of improved outcomes. Whichever way the vote went, the outcome stood to reshape how thousands of Baldwin County families would send their children to school for years to come.