Budgets, taxes atop agendas
The City of Holly Springs and Marshall County have proposed no change in millage for fiscal year 2021-2022 over last year’s rate.
Property taxes will increase for most residents due to the reappraisal of property required by the State of Mississippi.
August 30, the city board of aldermen decided not to change the tax levy by a vote of 4-1 with Ward 3 alderman Colter Teel opposing.
The resolution fixing the tax levy, as approved, includes 35.77 mills levied for the general city fund, .21 mills for the fire protection fund and 3.04 mills for police bond debt. The total for the city is 39.02.
A district school maintenance fund for the Holly Springs Separate School District is levied at 49 mills. A special school fund is 1 mill. A district school bond fund is levied at 12 mills, and a district school note is set at 2.5 mills. Total mills levied for the school district comes to 64.5.
The combined mills for both the city and the separate school district add up to 103.52.
Marshall County No changes in the proposed tax levy for Marshall County is anticipated. The millage for fiscal year 2021-2022 will remain the same unless changes are made prior to the adoption of the budget. A public hearing on the county budget was held on Tuesday of this week. Last year’s tax levy included:
• 51.90 mills for the general fund;
• 1 mill for any purpose;
• 1.41 mill for Northwest Community College support; • 1.41 mill for Northwest Community College improvements; • 25.71 mills for road and bridge maintenance;
• 1.02 mills for fire protection;
• .09 mills per acre for forest acreage tax on timbered and uncultivated land; • 31.61 mills for the Marshall County School District; • 2.43 mills for Marshall County School District debt; • .97 mills for Marshall County School District short term debt; • .31 mills for FY 2018 shortfall;
• .10 mills for 2019 shortfall;
• .22 mills for 2020 shortfall:
• and 1.77 mills for new Marshall County Jail bonds.
Other levies include .2 mills for fire protection and .2 mills for police protection for industries granted ad valorem exemptions after April 14, 1999; drainage district levies of 3.5 percent for Northwest Mississippi Consolidated District of Marshall, Tate and DeSoto Counties; 1 percent for the Tippah River Tri-County Drainage District; and 1 percent for the Oaklimiter Drainage District of Benton and Marshall counties.
The total millage for Marshall County taxpayers comes to 84.22 mills, and the millage for the Marshall County School District is 35.64, according to Casey Hillmer with the tax collector’s office.
The combined mills for both comes to 119.86.
Potts Camp and Byhalia
Angela Williams, mayor of Potts Camp, said the board of aldermen will discuss the tax levy at the September 7 meeting. Last year’s tax levy was 41.5 mills.
The discussion continues on the tax levy in Byhalia, said town clerk Teresa Strickland. Last year the millage was set for Byhalia at 26.5.
Explanations
Tax collector Betty Byrd said property values have increased due to the county’s reappraisal process. “For everybody’s taxes to stay the same, all the different taxing authorities would have to drop their millage rate,” she said. Holly Springs and other municipal governments are their own taxing authority, as is Marshall County, she said. The municipal governments set their own millage rate, as well as the Holly Springs School District. “They just give me the millage rate,” she said. Marshall County has nothing to do with setting the tax levies of the municipalities and the separate school district, Byrd said. “They set their own millage rate and they are a separate taxing authority,” she said.
The Marshall County Tax Collector’s office merely collects the taxes and distributes it to the individual taxing authorities, she said.
“I send them a monthly check,” Byrd said.
All taxing authorities have to have the millage rate set by September 15 and the rates go into effect October 1.
John DeHart and Hillmer provided additional explanations.
The county reappraisal was set to take place in 2020-2021 but due to the pandemic counties were given the option to put it off to this year, Hillmer said.
“We were supposed to do a full update last year,” Hillmer said.
“We were trending up (in valuation) last year,” said DeHart. “We really should have gotten it locked in last year but we couldn’t.”
A lot of the growth in property values was from the first quarter of last year (2020), DeHart said.
“We still would have seen an increase if we had appraised last year,” he said. “We were on an upswing.”
Hillmer said those who have smaller houses will see a smaller increase in taxes next fiscal year.
“We are seeing increases in values between 15 percent and 20 percent, but the average is more like 17 percent,” Hillmer said.
He said the tax office took the lowest percent increases the state allows to derive appraisal values.
“We are trying to keep it as low as we possibly can and still pass state standards,” he said. “By default, if you don’t reduce your millage, you are increasing taxes. It’s like a threelegged stool. If you increase the values, which we had to do, without decreasing the millage, you are effectively raising taxes.”
State law says taxes cannot go up more than 10 percent in one year, Hillmer said.
“The overall collection in the tax levy can’t increase by more than 10 percent a year,” he said.
There are some areas, such as new construction, where that rule (MS Code 27-39-320) does not apply, Hillmer said. Byrd provided an example
of the average tax increase between the lowest and highest tax districts for an owner-occupied home with a true value of $100,000. The average difference comes to $680 a year more for the first $100,000 of true value, minus $300 for homestead credit for those who qualify.
Rental property would be assessed at 15 percent of true value instead of 10 percent, she said. So that would result in owners of rental property paying a third more on average per $100,000 of true value, for lesser taxing district.
A homeowner who lives in Marshall County and resides in the Holly Springs Separate School District will pay 149.97 mills.
A property located in the county and in the Marshall County School District will pay 119.87 mills, the lowest millage.
A property located in the county and in the City of Holly Springs and in the Separate School District will be levied 187.87 mills, the highest mill rate for these three taxing districts, Byrd said.