AL HJR86

Congress designated section 16 of every township in Alabama for school purposes when the state was admitted to the Union on March 2, 1819, entitling Alabama to approximately 930,027 acres of sixteenth section lands.

Large portions of these lands were sold, exchanged, or lost when the state bank failed in 1843, leaving many counties without identifiable sixteenth section land or records of trust fund balances.

The resolution urges Congress to annually indemnify each of Alabama's 67 counties from Gulf of Mexico offshore royalty revenues based on lost sixteenth section acreage, using a methodology that allocates approximately 13,881 acres per county at $1,009 per acre.

Indemnification amounts are specified for each county, ranging from $7,663,355 for Walker County to $14,005,929 for multiple counties, with the calculation based on one-sixteenth of the 2008 fiscal year offshore royalties totaling $906,312,428.

The Attorney General shall provide oversight of the collection and distribution process, and any indemnification funds must increase rather than replace existing state or local education funding in each county.