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Parents, State Appealing Property Tax Ruling

Montgomery, AL – A lawsuit over the fairness of Alabama's property tax system is headed to a federal appeals court.

Parents in two rural Alabama counties have taken the first step toward appealing a federal judge's ruling rejecting their claims that their children receive an inadequate education because of historically low property taxes.

The state attorney general's office has also filed notice of appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals even though the judge's ruling was in the state's favor.

U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith ruled in October that the parents of students in Sumter and Lawrence counties didn't prove that the state's tax system was ``racially discriminatory. `` They had claimed low property taxes resulted from state officials trying to limit funding to black students.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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