Though the tax rate is expected to drop for Columbus Municipal School District this fiscal year, the district is requesting about $1 million more in ad valorem revenue compared to last year.
Most of that new money comes from the new state funding formula which requires local districts to cover a portion of special, gifted and career technical education programs.
CMSD’s board approved Wednesday a request for $15.72 million in ad valorem taxes this year, a 6.9% increase from Fiscal Year 2024. That money will fund its operations and debt service.
Ad valorem taxes are collected on real and personal property. The city council must approve the school district’s funding request by Sept. 15.
Of the total request, $12.7 million is for operations, CMSD Business Manager Holly Rogers said.
The remaining $2,812,624.59 will cover general obligation debt and a 3-mill note for capital improvements. The debt request is 2.2% lower than last year’s request, despite voters approving a $36 million bond to improve facilities in May. CMSD campaigned on the promise that the bond would not raise the current tax rate as it essentially replaced a 15-year bond issued in 2009 to build the middle school.
Even so, increased money for operations will require 65.5 mills to service, a reduction of only 0.83 mills from last year.
Should the council approve the request, homeowners in the district can expect to pay $8.30 less compared to last year for every $100,000 of property value. But because home values are estimated to increase by 18%, according to Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews, taxpayers may still see a higher tax bill.
Essentially, higher property values led the value of a mill in the district — the amount of money 1 mill generates in tax revenue — to increase to $240,000, up $18,000 from last year.
To put that in perspective, CMSD could have lowered its tax rate by 5.08 mills this year and raised the same amount of revenue it requested last year.
New formula brings new programs
By law, a public school district can use actual collections from any of the previous three years as its “base” and request up to a 4% increase for operations. Any increase more than 4% can be subject to a referendum.
Rogers said the district is asking for $11,807,180.70 for its base operations, a $125,992.94 increase (1.07%) from its collections between July 2023 and June 2024. While the district’s total operational request is 8.1% higher than its base, certain items, like new property added to the tax rolls, can be included in the request without offending the 4% threshold.
CMSD’s operations request includes $35,655.40 for new property, $329,231.20 for homestead exemption reimbursements and a $96,053.45 tax escrow that was deducted for Fiscal Year 2024 and added back for Fiscal Year 2025 — all of which are excluded from the 4% threshold.
The largest item under operations is $639,541 for “new programs” based on legislative changes. Rogers told The Dispatch the allocation is for local contributions under the new Mississippi Student Funding Formula.
The MSFF went into effect July 1, replacing the state’s former funding formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The new formula maintains the same rule for local contributions as MAEP, which requires districts to fund through local taxes either 27% of its operational costs or 28 mills of property value, whichever is less.
Under MAEP, gifted, special and career technical education programs were fully funded through the state. Under MSFF, which provides districts additional funding for students who can be more expensive to educate, the three programs now also require local contributions for up to 27%, or 28 mills, of its costs.
According to the formula legislation, additional millage needed to fund new programs mandated by the legislature are not subject to the increased limit for the first year, which is why the district can request more than a 4% increase for operational funding.
For Fiscal Year 2025, the local contribution for each district in the state was calculated based on the total funding for the district, according to the Mississippi Department of Education website. District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, who also chairs the House Education Committee said the calculations are a reflection of the 27% rule.
Just for new programs, Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District can request up to $3,083,433 and Lowndes County School District can request up to $2,888,663, according to MDE calculations, though both districts are still in the process of finalizing their tax requests.
The MSFF put about $217 million more into schools this year than what was budgeted for MAEP during the last academic year. With a greater contribution both from the state and local districts to cover new programs, the overall funding for the formula is larger under MFSS as compared to MAEP.
“The amount of money they’re getting for (career technical education) and special needs children and all that kind of stuff should be actually more for those particular kids based on the new funding formula,” Roberson said. “The state is actually putting more into those particular scenarios than there would have been otherwise.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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