The public comments portion of Tuesday’s meeting of the Cullman County Commission didn’t come and go as pleasantly as it typically does, thanks to a handful of vexed residents who made known their displeasure at the commission’s recently-passed sales tax increase.

Led by local realtor Ben Ponder, a number of current and former residents of County Road 18 near Bug Tussle took turns at the microphone, asking commissioners to justify passing a half-cent sales tax increase to fund projects for the Cullman County Board of Education, even as they continue to await needed repair work along the road where they live.

“The public wasn’t notified. You guys raised taxes on us within a week,” Ponder, who recently moved to another part of the county, told the three commissioners. “I want transparency…I’d probably even support it, if you would have explained what the need was. But I don’t support it being rammed down my throat.”

The commission surprised most Cullman County residents on March 12, when it unanimously approved a countywide half-cent sales tax increase that hadn’t been mentioned or discussed at any public meeting ahead of its passing. That tax encroaches by half a percent the amount of money that local government automatically collects every time someone makes a purchase at retail anywhere in Cullman County.

Asked for a by-the-numbers explanation of how revenues raised from the tax will be spent, commission chairman Kenneth Walker referred Ponder to the county school board, which he said will hold full discretion over how to allocate the funds over the course of the tax’s 15-year duration.

The county commission may have passed the tax, but it indeed will not control what happens to the revenue it raises once the money finds its way to the school board. Like other county and municipal sales taxes, the tax will be collected by the Cullman County Sales Tax and Revenue Enforcement Office, which in turn will issue regular payments to the school board.

“This comes right on the back of the whole [statewide] gas tax increase,” Ponder said. “Immediately after that, we get another tax that was automatically approved here with this sales tax, with no prior discussion or any kind of notice to the public about why we need to spend more money. They even admitted it: they [the commissioners] don’t know where they’re spending the money. That’s frustrating.”

Ponder and a handful of other residents began a Facebook group more than a year ago to share their frustrations and ideas over how to effect a speedier road repair process. Activity on the page, he says, has picked up in the days since the sales tax passed, and the group’s membership now stands at just fewer than 1,000 people.

“I really don’t think these guys [on the commission] are trying to make bad decisions or do anything under the table,” he said. “But I do think we need to see where our money is going, and right now, we’re not seeing it — even as we get no say in having to spend more of it.”