STARKVILLE — Split votes on Tuesday shot down a proposed tax increase and approved the city’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget.
Aldermen decided both matters after a third public hearing at City Hall, which settled what Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk called “fairly lively discussion” over the past month.
Sistrunk, who has a professional accounting background, prepared and supported a budget proposal that would raise the city’s ad valorem tax rate by 1 mill to 31.13. A mill is used to measure real and personal property taxes, and the increase would have added $10 to $15 to a citizen’s tax bill per every $100,000 of assessed property value not covered by Homestead exemption.
It would have also protected the $2.75 million cash balance the city will carry over from this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Instead, the majority of the board — composed of Ward 1’s Ben Carver, Ward 3’s Jeffrey Rupp, Ward 4’s Mike Brooks and Ward 5’s Hamp Beatty — opted to leave the tax rate at 30.13 mills and approve a budget that would draw the ending cash balance down to $2.4 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2023.
“Nobody really relishes the idea of a tax increase, and it’s easy to be anti-tax when you’re on the sidelines of these issues,” said Sistrunk, who has expressed concerns during the budget process that failing to raise taxes by 1 mill this year could force the city to raise it by 2 mills next year. “I do think the more responsible path forward is a tax increase.”
Brooks, who moved to leave taxes flat, has previously said the city stands to save money next year through vacant positions that are in the budget. The police and fire departments, combined, are still almost 30 employees short, and Brooks contends even aggressive efforts to fill all those positions in a year are likely to fall short.
On Tuesday, he mentioned this year’s reappraisal of private property, which he believes will organically raise property values — and thus tax revenue — without the need to raise millage.
“I’m not one who is diametrically opposed to raising taxes,” he said. “If need be, I’m going to be right in there going that way. I travel. I fly airplanes. I’ve called the police to my house. I’ve called the fire department to my house. I know government does a lot of good things, and we have to be able to pay for it. In this particular case, I am opposed.”
Carver, before expressing his “philosophical” opposition to the increase, thanked Sistrunk for her work putting together the budget proposals.
“She’s got a background in this field of work and she goes above and beyond the call of duty as an alderman,” Carver said of Sistrunk before addressing her directly. “You and I just disagree philosophically on taxation. … I would say if we need 2 (mills) next year, just get it then. We have agreed to disagree on that. I respect your opinion and your ideals.”
Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins, who represents Ward 6, and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn joined Sistrunk in voting to oppose the flat tax motion. They then formed a minority who voted against the FY 2023 budget.
The budget includes salary increases, ranging from 1.5 percent to 23 percent, for 315 city employees, as well as pay bumps for the mayor and aldermen.
Aldermen approved those in August, using $108,000 from the recent sale of industrial park property to fund them through the end of FY 2022. The 2023 budget builds in those raises, as well, accounting for about $1.1 million.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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