Property tax rates are dropping slightly next fiscal year in the city, but that won’t translate to decreased tax bills for citizens.
Julie Parker wanted to make that point clear Thursday during the city council’s second public hearing on the city’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
“I did check on the potential of what I would be paying … and I get a nice little increase,” Parker told council members at the hearing in City Hall.
“You can handle it,” a grinning Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens quipped in response.
Jokes aside, Parker isn’t wrong. And she’s calculated what the rest of Columbus homeowners will learn soon enough.
Homeowners without a homestead exemption can expect to pay 21% more in taxes this year than last year, Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told The Dispatch on Friday. That means if your home was valued at $100,000 last year, your taxes will increase by $284 this year, he said. Homeowners with homestead exemptions will see less of an increase.
That figure takes into account the new city and Columbus Municipal School District ad valorem tax rates the council approved Thursday, as well as what Andrews expects will be the county tax rate.
On a 4-1 vote, the council adopted a total FY 2025 millage rate of 118.5, which includes 53 mills for the city and 65.5 mills for the school district. While that total rate is down 1.94 mills from the previous year – the city rate alone is dropping 1.11 mills – it will still generate an additional $600,000 for the city and $1 million more for CMSD.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones, joining Thursday’s hearing by phone, opposed the new tax rate. He previously told The Dispatch he favored lowering the city’s rate 3.98 mills to 50.13, which would generate roughly the same ad valorem taxes as FY 2024.
A mill is used to measure ad valorem taxes, which is collected on real and personal property. One mill generates $10 in taxes for every $100,000 of home value.
But this year is Lowndes County’s turn to shoulder a reassessment from the Mississippi Department of Revenue that raised home values an average of 18%, Andrews said.
The owner of a non-exempted home valued at $100,000 last year paid $1,343, Andrews said. That same home would be worth $118,000 this year and draw a likely tax bill of $1,627, even with lower tax rates.
That’s because MDOR updated its manual that covers everything from a building’s base value per square foot to the materials used in construction – increasing values to better reflect current construction costs. Counties must adopt the new rates on a prescribed cycle through 2026.
Lowndes County supervisors won’t approve the county’s FY 2025 tax rate until September, but Board President Trip Hairston, who represents District 2, said discussions are leaning toward a modest 0.28-mill decrease. Even so, the county would collect more than $1.7 million in additional ad valorem revenue.
Because of employee wage pressure, equipment needs and inflation, the county needs the extra money, Hairston said.
“What we’re talking about now is maybe shaving off some millage,” he said. “… I’m committed to trying to hold that thing down, but the county is not immune from the pressures (caused by inflation).”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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