Columbus City Council is waiting until next week to approve its Fiscal Year 2023 tax levy in hopes city leaders can convince Columbus Municipal School District to trim its tax request.

In any case, a planned 1-mill increase for city operations has been scrapped.

It appears that disagreement, though, may come from a clerical issue.

The council intended to adopt the millage levy — the tax rate on personal and real property for next fiscal year — at Thursday night’s public hearing, then adopt the 2023 budget at Tuesday’s scheduled council meeting. Part of that levy will be taxes collected for CMSD.

Mayor Keith Gaskin said he and city officials are meeting with CMSD leadership this morning to ask them to reduce what he claims is a nearly 7-percent increase over last year’s request.

“I have reached out to (CMSD Interim Superintendent Dennis Dupree) to make sure that everybody has a clear understanding about what their request is,” Gaskin told The Dispatch after the meeting. “They are open to having those discussions and make sure they are doing what’s best for the city and the children.”

By law, a public school district requests funding from the taxing authority — in this case the city — which in turn levies the taxes to fund the request. City documents show CMSD is requesting $14,559,626 from local ad valorem taxes, which would raise its tax rate by 4.17 mills compared to this fiscal year. Of that, $11,555,826 is for operations. The remainder covers general obligated debt and a 3-mill note for capital improvements.

“We want them to lower it,” Gaskin said of the district’s request. “We would like to lower it if we can keep it within the budget they need for operations. We feel like that is a big hit. … A 6.8 percent increase is just below what might trigger a (referendum).”

CMSD leadership disputes Gaskin’s claim the funding request is out of bounds, and district records indicate is only asking for $11,401,430 for operations.

The city’s worksheet, which The Dispatch obtained Thursday, adds $154,000 in tax collection and homestead exemption to the district’s tax levy.

School districts can legally use actual collections (which may differ from that year’s request) from any of the previous three years as its “base” and request up to a 4-percent increase for operations. Increases between 4 and 7 percent can be subject to citizens petitioning a reverse referendum. Increases of more than 7 percent are subject to direct referendum. New property added to the tax rolls can also be included in a district’s request without being subject to the 4 percent threshold.

“For our ad valorem tax request, we used (Fiscal Year 2022) collections,” said CMSD Public Information Officer Mary Pollitz in a statement issued early Thursday afternoon. “We took the numbers from this year’s collections and made a 4 percent increase in our request.”

Gaskin was careful to say that no commitment to make a cut had been made.

“We don’t have a commitment from them that they’re going to return with a lower request,” he said. “They have just simply agreed to sit down. We’re definitely looking for a compromise.”

Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens said he hoped some compromise could be reached.

“My phone has been blowing up with my constituents talking about the increase,” Mickens said. “We have to look at the children and the mills that we’re putting on the households. … I pray that we can come to a compromise. I pray that we can. I’m throwing myself at your feet.”

With the city’s tax levy staying steady at 54.11 mills, that brings the total projected levy to 121.19 mills, versus 117.02 mills in FY 22.