Mountain Brook leaders say residents are paying millions in online sales taxes that never make it back to their community.

Now the city has joined a lawsuit arguing the state’s distribution formula is outdated, unfair and draining money from schools, roads and public safety.

The Simplified Sellers Use Tax, or SSUT, was created in 2015 to capture revenue from online purchases. The law imposes a flat 8% tax, with half of the proceeds going to state funds and the other half distributed to cities and counties based on population. What matters to cities like Mountain Brook is what the formula leaves out — purchases are not credited to the places where they actually occur.

“The state of Alabama does not have a clear way to say this amount is coming from Mountain Brook, this amount is coming f

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