The Lowndes County School District is expected to pass a budget requesting $1.7 million more in ad valorem taxes this fiscal year, causing a slight increase to the tax rate.
LCSD Business Administrator Sayonia Garvin recommended the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025 during a public budget hearing Thursday, which includes a total local tax request of $32.2 million that will be collected from taxpayers based on their real and personal property values.
Of that, $25.2 million is for operations, including a base request of $21.9 million. On top of the base request, LCSD is asking for $365,900 for homestead reimbursement and $2.8 million for new programs.
The remaining $7,008,795 will cover general obligation debt, a 3-mill note for capital improvements and shortfall notes dating back to 2021.
Once the board approves the budget, the county sets the number of mills, or the tax rate, necessary to collect it. It took the county 51.38 mills to fully fund LCSD’s ad valorem request for Fiscal Year 2024. If this year’s proposal is approved, the tax rate would increase to 52.02, an increase of 0.64 mills from last year.
At that rate, homeowners in the district can expect to pay $6.40 more compared to last year for every $100,000 of property value.
Tax bills may be significantly higher than last year, though, since a new state assessment formula, which took effect in Lowndes raised home values by an average of 18%.
The request includes no increase from the district’s operations base. By law, a school district can use collections from any of the previous three years as its “base” and request up to a 4% increase for operations. Any increase above 4% could be subject to a reverse referendum, while increases between 4 and 7% are subject to a direct referendum.
Some items, like homestead reimbursement or new property added to the tax rolls, do not count against the 4% threshold. The district’s largest operational item, new programs, also doesn’t offend the threshold.
Under the new Mississippi Student Funding Formula, school districts are required to fund a portion of add on programs, like special and gifted education, that were previously funded by the state under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The “new programs” allocation reflects that funding and is based on the district’s local contribution, which is 27% of its formula funding or the value of 28 mills.
Superintendent Sam Allison said the district could have requested a little more than $300,000 in additional taxes for new property but instead opted to only ask for the “new programs” allocation.
“We felt like the increase with new programs was sufficient for us going into the next year,” Allison told The Dispatch Friday. “We could have done more. … But you also want to be good stewards. We don’t want to raise taxes.”
Should the district approve the request during its regular meeting Friday, it will head to the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors for approval in September. Board President Trip Hairston said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with approving the proposed request.
“I haven’t had a chance to dig into it, but I don’t see much problem with what they’ve done now because it’s under the 7% (threshold),” Hairston told The Dispatch. “They didn’t claim any new property, even though they had the opportunity to claim some. … It looks like, to me, they’re making very thoughtful decisions about the taxpayer.”
The county denied funding LCSD’s full request in 2020, 2021 and 2022, claiming it exceeded the 7% threshold and thus the amount the district could legally obtain. In 2020, the district sued the county for denying the request, arguing that expired fee-in-lieu agreements for industries that weren’t previously on the tax rolls could be counted as new property. By state law, industries who invest at least $60 million can enter agreements to pay a fee of one-third of the regular tax rate for 10 years.
A chancery court judge ruled in LCSD’s favor in August 2021, and the county appealed the decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court. In June 2023, the Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit, ruling the district didn’t file it timely and also filed it in the wrong court.
Allison doesn’t expect any problems this year with the county meeting the request. The district has come a long way financially from where it was four years ago, he said.
“Our district is financially healthy, and there’s a lot of people who work hard to make sure of that,” he said. “We’re fortunate to be in Lowndes County. We’re fortunate to have the industry that we do … to provide the tax base that we have. It does a great job with funding what we need.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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