County’s Budget Hearing Is Thursday In Coffeeville
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WATER VALLEY – A public hearing is scheduled Thursday for the county’s proposed $10,813,411 budget and tax levy for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. If the budget is approved as discussed during an August meetings, it will not include a tax rate increase as the tax levy for the general fund will remain at 52 mills for the new fiscal year that starts October 1.
Although the millage rate, or tax rate, for the proposed budget will remain the same, property owners who have an increase in the assessed value of their property will pay more in taxes in the coming year. During the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the 52 mill assessment brought in $3,517,000 for the general fund, which supports the traditional functions of county government. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the same 52 mill assessment will bring in $3,752,789 in revenue.
“My taxes on my house could increase if my house is worth a little bit more, but I would still be paying the same millage (rate),” Board President Cayce Washington explained. Washington’s input came during budget talk during a meeting on August 8 as supervisors contemplated the tax rate.
The proposed budget will include one of the largest salary increases for county employees in history after supervisors verbally agreed on an across-the-board monthly raise of $200 per month for the 60-plus workers employed by the county.
District 5 Supervisor Gaylon Gray was the lone holdout for the raises during the discussion on August 8.
“We have nine percent inflation, that is a nine percent tax on everybody,” Gray noted during the discussion.
Gray was in favor of dropping the millage rate below the current rate of 52 mills for the county’s general fund to cut taxes.
School District
The Water Valley School District’s total budget for the 2022-2023 school year is $11,880,321, but only 17 percent comes from ad valorem taxes collected in the county. The district’s $2,009,012 request for ad valorem taxes for the 2022-2023 budget had a slight increase of $937 from the previous year.
Even with the slight increase, the assessed tax value of the Water Valley School District decreased. This means the value of taxable property located in the district that includes homes, automobiles, business fixtures and equipment and rental property will be less in the coming year. That decrease means the school’s millage rate, or tax rate, will increase 3.275 mills and taxpayers will pay more for school taxes to meet the district’s request.
The proposed county budget will be able to absorb the school’s millage increase without an overall increase in the tax levy that includes county and school taxes after a 20-year bond was retired. The tax levy for the courthouse bond was just over four mills.
Thursday’s public hearing is scheduled at the Coffeeville courthouse at 9 a.m.
