LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A judge on Friday threw out the petition challenging a proposed tax increase from the Jefferson County Board of Education over issues with the signatures. Shortly after, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said the decision could mark the “most important day in the history of our school district.”

Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards wrote in his order that the petition “did not contain sufficient signatures of registered and qualified voters.” JCPS and the Jefferson County Teachers Association had challenged thousands of the petition’s signatures in court.

Petitioners opposing the tax increase collected more than 38,500 signatures this year to put the tax increase up for a vote. Ballots were printed with the “Tax Levy Question” and tens of thousands of votes have been cast. In his order, Edwards wrote that the votes on the question will not be tabulated. 

The tax increase will see property owners pay an extra $70 per year for every $100,000 in assessed value. JCPS estimates that this will bring in $54 million each year. 

“We will longer have schools with condemned third floors,” Pollio told reporters Friday. “We will no longer have 32 schools that are beyond the end of life. We will no longer have buildings where mold is coming in and principals are lining up trash cans in the hallways to collect rain.”

JCPS has said the money raised will go toward new facilities, racial equity initiatives, and “resources in our highest-need schools.”

Pollio said Friday he wants the money JCPS raises to be tracked in an online dashboard, allowing residents to hold the district accountable for how it’s spending the money.

In post on the “No JCPS Tax Hike” Facebook page, petition organizer Theresa Camoriano wrote that she plans to appeal Edwards’s decision. “After all that effort on the part of citizen volunteers, following legal procedures and gathering enough signatures, the people should have the right to vote on the tax hike and not have their voices silenced,” she wrote.