The Lowndes County School District Board is set to vote whether to request $1.1 million more in ad valorem taxes this fiscal year.
Whether it does or not, the tax rate for district patrons is expected to decrease either way.

Business Administrator Sayonia Garvin presented the board with a proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 during a Tuesday evening public hearing. The budget includes a total tax request of $32.6 million that would be collected from taxpayers based on their real and personal property values.

Of that request, $26.6 million is for operations. That includes a $1.1 million increase from the $25.2 million the district collected for operations last fiscal year, along with $147,717 for new programs and $259,195 in new property added to the tax rolls.

By law, school districts can request up to a 4% increase for operations from the previous year’s request. Up to 7% can trigger a reverse referendum, and more than that requires a direct referendum. New programs and new property are not figured into that percentage.

Should the district approve the proposed budget, the $1.1 million request would only be a 3.9% increase.

The remaining $5,962,103 will cover the district’s 3-mill note for capital improvements, general obligation debt and shortfall notes dating back to 2021, though Garvin said debt payments are decreasing.

The shortfall notes came from three consecutive years where the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors failed to fully fund the district’s request, so the LCSD borrowed the difference.

“We’re getting things paid off because most of those are shortfall notes that we had to incur,” she told the board. “… So our debt millage is going way down.”

The board is set to approve a budget Aug. 8 during its regular meeting. Alternatively it could approve a budget without the $1.1 million funding increase. Once approved, county supervisors will set the number of mills – or the tax rate – required to fund the budget.

A mill is used to measure property taxes. A 1-mill increase, for example, would add $10 to a homeowner’s tax bill per every $100,000 of appraised value.

Garvin said it took the county 52.03 mills to fund the district’s request for Fiscal Year 2025. If the proposed budget is approved, the tax rate would decrease by 0.65 mills to 51.38 mills. At that rate, homeowners in the district could expect to pay $6.50 less than last year for each $100,000 in value. That’s because the value of a district mill – the amount of taxes one mill is projected to generate – will be $635,000, up $15,000 from last year, Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told LCSD officials.

If the board chooses not to request a funding increase, the mill rate would drop by 2.88 mills to 49.15, meaning homeowners could see their bill decrease by $28.88 per $100,000 of value.

“You won’t see that across the state that we can increase our request and our overall millage goes down,” Superintendent Sam Allison told The Dispatch after the hearing. “Basically what that means, as taxpayers, we won’t see that on our property tax (bill).”
Allison said he expects the county to fund the request.

“We’ve got a good relationship, and as much as we’re enjoying the progress of Lowndes County, they are too,” he said.

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.