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Is tax help on the way?
Published Tuesday, June 30, 2009
NATCHEZ — In the face of rising property tax assessments, which will cause land owners to pay higher property taxes, some entities are making plans to help Adams County residents.
Representatives from the Natchez-Adams School Board and Adams County Board of Supervisors said they are considering lowering their millage request to lessen the burden on taxpayers.
But whether or not the City of Natchez will lower its millage has yet-to-be discussed, Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said. “Right now it’s too soon to tell,” Middleton said.
Adams County Tax Assessor Reynolds Atkins said recent mandates from the state have forced him to evaluate properties at a higher value than in previous years.
“People are going to get larger tax bills, and a lot of them won’t be ready for that,” Atkins said. “The city, county and school board need to help them out.”
The city, county and school board each collect a millage that is, in part, based on property values.
One mil is the unit of measurement assigned to county property taxes.
Since the value of a mil, currently valued at approximately $185,000, will go up based on the increased property assessments, the three entities should lower the amount of millage they collect, Atkins said.
Doing so at a rate comparable to the tax increase could protect residents from higher taxes.
Adams County currently collects 60.4 mils, the City of Natchez collects 42.7, and the Natchez-Adams School Board collects 53.9 mils.
Supervisor Mike Lazarus said if the three bodies don’t lower the millage, residents will be stuck with high tax bills and the county, city and school board will likely have more money than they need.
“I think we’ve pretty much decided to offset the increases,” Lazarus said.
And while no official action has been taken by the supervisors or the school board, Natchez-Adams School District Business Manager Margaret Parson said the school board will also likely lower its millage.
“Based on numbers I’ve seen, we should be able to lower the millage,” Parson said.
Atkins said he will likely provide a tax roll, which will then be used to set the millage, to the supervisors in early July.
Natchez Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said she is receptive to lowering the millage, but must be able to guarantee the city will still have enough money to fund its essential services.
“We have to have things like a fire department and a police department to be able to run the city,” Mathis said. “We have to know that we have everything in place before we talk about lowering the millage.”
But both Mathis and City Clerk Donnie Holloway said the city’s current budget woes will play a factor in cutting the millage.
The city has recently used hundreds of thousands in borrowed money to pay its employees.
“We’re constantly looking at where we can save, we’re talking about layoffs now” Mathis said. “We don’t know.”
Comments
Posted by omniscience (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 1:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It sounds like Arceneaux-Mathis has dollar signs in her eyes. Once again she has opened her mouth and removed all doubt...
Posted by snatchez (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 6:29 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by stateofnatchez (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 9:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Do what you will BoA/BoS.
You are continually losing your tax base regardless or any temporary measure you take.
People are leaving Natchez and Adams cty as they can and will.
Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 10:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So, let's see, the only way the city/county government has to raise money is taxation, right? Isn't there any other way for government to earn money? They have no problem at all spending money...there should be some correlation, I think.
In Cleveland, Oh. when the tax base dwindled due to people moving to the suburbs, the city council imposed a tax to commute to work. If you lived say, in Westlake, OH, and worked in Cleveland, you paid 2% tax on your income to the city. Kind of like if you live in Vidalia and worked in Natchez. They also charged a toll on the highway system, much the same as Atlanta, to help maintain the streets and pay for repairs. Put a toll on the bridge again....we could make a fortune on just the people who cross two times a week to buy lottery tickets.
Maybe then driving across the bridge to pay taxes in Vidalia and to Louisiana to save a dime a gallon on gasoline while your city and your neighbors lose those tax dollars wouldn't seem so smart after all.
Change, people, you want things to change and get better, they we have to actually make some changes!
---mojo
Ps---snatchez---can you read? Do you have trouble with comprehension? Tell me if I'm wrong, but I read Ms Mathis statement in a completely different concept. The Democrat said (and I'm quoting here from the paper, "Natchez Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said she is receptive to lowering the millage,[that means she's for it] but must be able to guarantee the city will still have enough money to fund its essential services. [This shows she wants to be cautious that we don't get swept up in a frenzy to cut taxes and then not be able to run the city properly, as her next statement clearly shows]
“We have to have things like a fire department and a police department to be able to run the city,” Mathis said. “We have to know that we have everything in place before we talk about lowering the millage.”
How can you misunderstand that so completely? "Dollar signs in her eyes"? Her's is a statement of fiscal responsibility, and attention to the job to which she was elected. Which would you rather do without to get those dollar signs out of Ms Mathis' eyes, the fire department or the police?
Your statement is totally ludicris, laced with the nasty poison of racism revealing the true identiy of our very own Village Idiot.
Posted by thetinman (Keith Reynolds) on June 30, 2009 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Just don't get it!!! FACT, Property values are going down. The state is mandating counties to raise taxes on valued increase of all properties? Am I missing something?
I am so glad to know JESUS CHRIST and to know he is getting ready to take his Bride home!!
GOD Bless
Posted by beammeupscotty (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 11:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The city has no choice but to take the full millage. There is no need for the BOA or the mayor to suggest otherwise except for re-election purposes. I have seen this show before, they cut the millage this year and things get so bad next year they double it and then it never goes down. Lesson learned from my time in the Army,"It is easier to take orders than give them". Time to lead, I am already sending in a little extra escrow each month with my mortgage.
Posted by EnKiKur (Marty Ellerbe) on June 30, 2009 at 3:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
All these boards recently joined together in a interlocal agreement to build a recreation complex. If they all agree to lower the millage they can claim they've done the taxpayers a favor; then they can say we've saved you x amount of money, now there is x amount of money available for recreation. All you have to do is approve a new recreation millage, it won't cost you anything you wouldn't have had to pay if we hadn't been so good to you, and we can go ahead and borrow 15 million guaranteed by the millage and your children will live happily ever after.
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on June 30, 2009 at 10:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We are all Taxed Enough Already!!!!!
borrowing money to pay employees, how silly can you get? This is bad management no matter how good the intentions are. Any business that borrows money to make a payroll is doomed, any good tough fiscal manager lives by this rule- live according to your cash flow, you must spend LESS than your revenue OR YOU HAVE NO PROFIT!! and nothing to put back into the business for improvements or inventory.
I do appreciate the apparent desire to offset state legislature increasing property values, however we should all have been made aware of this EVIL STATE PROPERTY TAX INCREASE before it was passed, and we all should have fought it, our supervisors and aldermen and mayor should have pushed our State Senators and State Legislators to kill such an evil bill. In times of bad economy, more taxing is the worst thing to thing to do.
I wish the Natchez Democrat would post the voting record of our State Legislatures, including Bob Dearing, on this bill and all other tax bills, which none of us knew about (thank you Natchez Democrat for not making us aware of this MS Legislature Bill that increased our property taxes BEFORE it was passed- oh I forgot this is a Democrat paper, and Democrats being FOR TAXES and FOR SPENDING would tend to make one think that the ND was FOR this bill and that is why we were NOT INFORMED)
if you consider yourself a conservative on fiscal issues such as taxation and budgets, then WAKE UP and change parties, Democrats these days are LIBERALS and FOR TAXES and FOR SPENDING and FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT. The days of Conservative Democrats are over, today Democrat and Liberal are the same thing.
Our local governments are FOR bigger government- this is obvious as city and county governments are trying to get into the recreation business BIG TIME, already in the tourism business, healthcare (hospital operation), real estate buying and selling and development, this is NOT GOOD for the economy and jobs. This is bad for families wishing to have small business. A great indication is the hospital going BROKE, and our city & county operational budget needing borrowed money to finish a year. This is crazy and our government leaders had better cut some people, suspend operations, or do something drastic to keep things within a manageable condition, or else before you know it another $500,000 will be borrowed........
Government should stick to the basics of public safety, road repair, drainage, storm/natural disaster response, police, fire, public building maintenance, etc and get the hell out of everything else. Sell, Dump and Cut everything other than the bare basic essentials........
Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on July 1, 2009 at 11:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Krogers--- In the last 28 years, did your personal income tax go down during the Republican's 20 years in office? Did your personal income tax go up during the Democrat's 8 years?
Republicans cut taxes, yes, but only for the wealthiest people. Yet they grow the government by leaps and bounds while taking in less money...from where does the money to pay for all the growth come? That's right. Republicans hate social services, repairing our highways or our inner cities, they could care less about public schools or health care, or the arts, or the elderly or disabled. Their hero is Gordon Geko---"Greed is Good."
I know that is not what they say. It's not what the pundits and talking heads at FOX news say, but it IS reality.
What happens when the nation gets fed up with all the lying, looting and losing? They go to the polls and elect a Democrat. This guy is then left to be lambasted by every tax cutting Republican sore-loser, cry baby because he is forced to raise taxes to pay off their greed and get people back to work; to end their wars, and win the peace.
Obama's platform was out there for everyone to see. He debated McCain on TV and in the news every day. The Republican candidates called him everything from a commie loving socialist to a jihadist terrorist, yet he still won the election by a landslide---365 electoral votes to 173, and by nearley 10 million popular votes---
Our job now as Americans is to live under the democratic principle of majority rule. We are to get behind the elected, shore up our line and remind the world why we are the greatest nation to ever exist on this planet...we are a nation of laws, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL. All people, krogers. So many people get up in arms about removing God from that pledge, but how many of those same people truly live by it? I heard a Rush Limbaud program about our Pledge one day and he was raising all kinds of cain, but then he turns right around and demeans and slanders his president. He has committed treason by announcing he hopes Obama fails. Treason because by hoping our president fails, he is wishing the same on our country, our people and our way of life.
"Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophies that considers individual liberty, justice, and equality to be the most important political goals."...wikipedia
"Conservatism suggests it usually indicates support for tradition and traditional values though the meaning has changed in different countries and time periods. Conservatism is less a political doctrine than a habit of mind, a mode of feeling, a way of living, the negation of ideology"..........wikipedia
WHICH ONE OF THOSE DEFINITIONS SOUNDS MORE LIKE OUR BELOVED PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE?
I guess that's why the same old thing happens every time we elect conservatives. It's not an ideology, it's merely habit.
---mojo
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