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County can’t afford to give tax break to all residents
Published Thursday, September 3, 2009
NATCHEZ — While the Adams County Supervisors are planning to make good on their plan to lower the millage due to the property reassessment, not all county residents will see lower taxes.
Adams County Administrator Cathy Walker said if the supervisors would have cut the millage such that all county residents received a tax break, the county would not have enough money to operate.
“We just would not have enough money,” Walker said. “We would have had to start cutting services very quickly.”
Current projections call for the millage to be dropped from 118.34 mills down to 110.12.
The 110.12 mills come from 62.22 mills collected by the county and 47.9 mills collected by the Natchez-Adams School District.
Supervisor Mike Lazarus said while the supervisors would have liked to lower the millage enough to provide a tax reduction for all county residents, it just was not possible.
“We just can’t cut that much,” Lazarus said.
Adams County Tax Assessor Reynolds Atkins said the “very complicated” formula which provides his office with property assessments makes it “extremely difficult” to provide a simple answer as to why some people will see a reduction in their taxes and some won’t.
“Some home values went up more than others, and some houses are just more valuable than others,” Atkins said. “Everyone isn’t going to see the same increase or decrease.”
For most of 2008-2009 Atkins traversed Adams County to reassess its 18,000 parcels of land as mandated by the Mississippi Tax Commission.
Upward adjustments in the assessments and in the building index both worked to drive up the property taxes, Atkins said.
Since news of the reassessment, supervisors have been working to lower the millage to offset the reassessment.
On Wednesday county residents will have an opportunity to discuss the millage with the supervisors in the first of two public meetings.
And while the millage can still technically be changed, that likely won’t happen, Lazarus said.
“I don’t think we’ll need to make any adjustments,” Lazarus said.
Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the supervisors’ office on State Street.
Comments
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 12:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Some don,t need breaks,they don,t pay taxes anyway.
Posted by crazyworld (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 3:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is "very complicated formula" and "extremely difficult to provide a simple answer" code words for "it lets us stick it to who we want to"?
Posted by pbnj (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 3:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is "very complicated formula" and "extremely difficult to provide a simple answer" code words for "we have no idea what we're doing."
Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on September 3, 2009 at 5:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is "very complicated formula" and "extremely difficult to provide a simple answer".
I doubt it is complicated and should be easy to give an answer to an individual taxpayer. There should be a detailed report by property for 08-09 and 09-10. The difference between the two numbers is the increase or decrease for property taxes.
After all, there are only two variables to be considered. How much did the assessed value increase and what will be the millage rate.
And if you want to know how the much the increase/decrease was affected by millage and assessed value, here are the two formulas to use.
09-10 Taxable Assessment times the proposed millage rate
Less: 09-10 Taxable Assessment times the current millage rate
If the number is positive the county gains revenue and if it is negative, the county losses revenue. Since the county is proposing to lower the millage, the county will lose revenue.
However, the other side of the equation is:
09-10 Taxable Assessment times the current millage rate
Less: 08-09 Taxable Assessment time the current millage rate
If the number is positive the county gains revenue and if it is negative, the county losses revenue. Since the county assessments have increased, the county will gain revenue.
Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 5:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The Tax Assessor's office is in the court house and he's been available most of the times that I've been in there. If you haven't met him, you should. If you don't understand the job that he does for the county, just ask.
Posted by shelockholmes (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The County cut millage by more than 8 mills will the city follow suit, because if you don't cut no one will see a reduction.
Posted by 2of4 (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
how about giving the savings to those citizens inside the city limits since they pay city and county taxes and the county residents have access to our roads, etc.
Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on September 3, 2009 at 9:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is going to be interesting to hear how the citizens of Adams County got their one (1) mill tax break from the county.
Remember, all of the BS (blowing smoke) about the supers cutting expenses to save the residents one (1) mill.
The way I figure it, property taxes for next year should be below this year by $200,000 give or take a few dollars.
Posted by jugghead52 (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 10:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"very complicated formula" its that way by design , a possible way to hide money?
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 12:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
get rid of all the meetings and supervisiors and let the women that run the offices take care of it. They do it anyway. That would save enough money to balance everything
Posted by OldGrandDad (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 1:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
jugghead52, concerning -->"its that way by design , a possible way to hide money"
Wow. I never thought of it that way. Let's see - The Tax Assessor (quoted above) only decides how much the person/business will have to pay. The Tax Collector (different elected official and office) only accepts the tax payments. Then the money goes to......
So where you reckon they are hiding this money? And who do you reckon is hiding it.
Posted by corvett40 (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm glad to see some people getting a break. Keep up the good work BOS,
Posted by Krogers (anonymous) on September 3, 2009 at 9:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hard to comment on this without being openly informed on the facts
I have to agree with gemcull, tax should be easy to figure out, and everyone should be paying the same % based on the sq ft of their property
cut the budgets more, the school budget is way too much....the dang school district is like a third government that passes its own tax laws and have very little accountability, especially in light of the fact that despite the huge budget, the performance levels are low....to me that is very aggravating, and it's really not fair at all to those families spending an arm, a leg, and a testicle to send their kids to private school, plus pay tax to send kids to school whose families do not pay any tax...
Posted by jugghead52 (anonymous) on September 5, 2009 at 8:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
so granddad you have never heard of anyone in the court house managing money in a no so legal manner?? i would like to be a fly on the wall in some of those meetings, or out on the court house steps, bills are passed and i don't mean water bills.
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