Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks cannot take sales-tax money away from suburban school districts. That's the ruling from the Fourth Appellate Division today. The county plans to appeal, a spokesman says.

The Republican majority in the County Legislature passed the FAIR Plan in late September. It included a 50-percent cut in the amount of sales-tax money the county gives to suburban schools. The county said it was legal, but school districts said it violated the Morin-Ryan agreement, a countywide sales-tax sharing plan written into state law. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the county in December, and the schools appealed. They said all along that they believed they had a better chance with the Appellate Court, because several judges would examine the case, not just one. And they were right. Today, The Fourth Appellate Division came down on the school districts' side.

The decision means the county may have to pay schools $29 million, putting the county back it in the same financial predicament it was before FAIR.

Officials promoted the plan as a way to address yearly multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls.