NATCHEZ — A new law recently enacted will force cities and counties that were subject to state mandated property tax reassessments this year to run a millage notice in their local newspapers by Sept. 1.

The City of Natchez and Adams County must run an ad stating what the rate millage would be if neither the city, county or Natchez-Adams School District saw any increase in revenue as a result of the reassessment, since the reassessment has drastically raised the value of one mil.

The reassessment caused the value of one mil to spike from approximately $185,000 to approximately $215,000 in the city and county and from $189,000 to $224,000 in the school district.

If the city saw no revenue increase as result of the reassessment their millage would fall from 42.73 mil, collected in 2008, to 38.09, in the county that number would fall from 64.39 mils to 54.11 mils, the school district would see a drop from 53.95 mils to 45.43 mils.

Mississippi State Tax Commission Spokesperson Kathy Waterbury said should any entity not publish the required figures it could result in the city or county losing their eligibility to be reimbursed for homestead exemptions.

Locally, Natchez City Clerk Donnie Holloway and Adams County Administrator Cathy Walker said they are concerned the advertisement they’ll be running in the newspaper will only serve to confuse people.

“First, no one is going to lose their homestead exemptions,” Holloway said. “But this can be confusing to people.”

Both Holloway and Walker said they’re also concerned people will read the ads and believe the millage has been set.

“The millage won’t be set until Sept. 15,” Walker said. “This figure won’t reflect what the millage will be. This only shows what the millage would be if we collected the same amount of money this year as we did last year. It’s confusing.”

Waterbury said while the state tax commission did not set the law requiring the ads that will run in 27 counties, they are compelled to notify local governments of their obligation to run the ads.

“That was an act of the Legislature, and I can’t tell what they were thinking,” Waterbury said. “This is brand new for all of us.”