Three school districts in Wyandotte County plan to file a lawsuit challenging the legality of Johnson County voters’ passing a quarter-cent sales tax to raise money for their public schools.

“We’re going ahead with this,” said Carroll Macke, director of public relations for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools.

Joining the Kansas City school district are the Turner and Bonner Springs districts.

Other districts are being asked to join the lawsuit, Macke said.

Approved by Johnson County voters in the Aug. 6 primary election, the sales tax is expected to raise $45.2 million for six school districts in the county in the next three years.

Macke said a timetable for filing the lawsuit had not been set.

“I suspect it will be pretty soon. I just don’t know when,” he said.

The new tax takes effect Jan. 1. Revenues are expected to reach the six school districts by March 31.

The districts affected are Shawnee Mission, Olathe, Blue Valley, DeSoto, Gardner-Edgerton-Antioch and Spring Hill.

Macke said the tax would widen the spending gap between wealthy and poor districts, violating mandates in the Kansas Constitution that ensure equity and give the state sole responsibility for education financing.

“We respect what they’re doing, and we understand why they’re doing it,” Macke said. “But not everybody has the kind of retail economy that Johnson County has. So for the rest of us, it creates an unfair playing field. It also lets the Legislature off the hook – they’re the one who ought to be fixing this.”

The tax, Macke says, is sure to give the Johnson County districts a “significant advantage” in recruiting and retaining teachers and staff.

Johnson County officials insist the sales tax is legal and, if challenged, will be upheld.

“Before any actions were taken, both the school districts and the county took a very long and careful look at the issues that are now being raised. And we feel reasonably comfortable that that the way things progressed were and are consistent with state statutes in regards to what can and can’t be done,” said Donald Jarrett, chief legal counsel for Johnson County.

Under Kansas law, school districts are not allowed to levy sales taxes.

The Johnson County arrangement, Jarrett and others argue, is legal because the county – not school districts – is collecting the tax as part of an economic development package.

Besides the $45.2 million for schools, the tax is expected to raise $25.4 million for cities in the county.