A decade has made a marked difference on assessment values and tax collections in Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties.
In 2014, the total assessed value of all real and personal property in Lowndes County eclipsed $1 billion, a more than 150-percent increase from $397 million in 2004. Oktibbeha County has also seen a bump in property value assessments with $355 million in 2014. That’s up 48 percent from $240 million in assessed value in 2004.
Lowndes County tax collector/assessor Greg Andrews credits industrial development for the Lowndes increase, namely the $5 billion in investments over the last five years, $2.7 billion of which were at the county’s industrial park in west Lowndes County. In fact, each of the top five taxpayers in Lowndes County is an industry, with three located at the industrial park.
Industrial developments, Andrews said, have driven Lowndes County from 21st among Mississippi counties in assessed value in 1996 to a top 5 ranking in 2014.
Lowndes is No. 1 in Mississippi for industrial assessments, according to Andrews.
“Just the amount our assessment value has jumped (since 2004) is more than what 65 counties in Mississippi operate on,” Andrews said.
For Oktibbeha County, it’s not industry, but multi-family housing units contributing the most in taxes.
“Our growth is definitely tied to Mississippi State University, I think,” Oktibbeha County tax collector/assessor Allen Morgan said. “We’ve got a lot more students here than we had 10 years ago. And you’ve got a lot of people who live here and work in Lowndes County.”
Most commercial properties are assessed at 15 percent of their actual value, compared to 10 percent for single-family residential properties without homestead exemptions. Property owners pay ad valorem taxes based on mills, and each mill is .001 percent of the assessed value. Those mills help pay for city, county and school district services and projects. For instance, if a taxpayer owns a commercial property worth $100,000 in a city or county that assesses 100 mills in taxes, that property owner would pay $1,500 in ad valorem taxes.
Andrews said in Lowndes County many of the industrial developments pay “in lieu” taxes for several years — usually 10 — before having to pay ad valorem. With that, a company only pays taxes on one-third of its assessed value until the agreed upon term expires.
Major in lieu agreements for companies like Severstal (now Steel Dynamics) and PACCAR are set to expire within the next six years, Andrews said, which he said would raise the value of a mill in Lowndes County (outside Columbus) from about $331,000 now to more than $730,000 by 2021.
Andrews said Lowndes County saw a significant mill value bump in 2014, when Caledonia Combined Cycle’s 10-year in lieu agreement expired and raised the mill value by $57,000. He said Severstal’s first development from 2006, valued at $980 million, would be subject to paying full ad valorem taxes in 2016, and that would raise the mill value another $171,000.
While Oktibbeha County’s assessed property values are steadily climbing each year, its leaders hope to see even greater increases in the near future. Starkville has landed a $20-million C Spire data center at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park, as well as two major hotel/retail developments near MSU valued at a combined $60 million.
Starkville and Oktibbeha County are also partnering with the Golden Triangle Development LINK for a 326-acre industrial park called the Innovation District.
Where there is a strong industrial presence, there is usually greater ad valorem tax growth, according to Stennis Institute of Government and Economic Development project manager Joe Young.
Young, who is a former tax collector/assessor in Pike County, said there are trade-offs, however, with strong industry in how it could affect residential value and quality of life.
He used the developing oil industry in southwest Mississippi as an example, where he said more jobs and more tax revenue have come with higher crime and more migrant workers.
“There are pros and cons when you look at both sides,” Young said. “An industry-based county enjoys higher tax value, therefore greater income. At the same time, any real estate will tell you that people buy homes because of location, whether it be the school system, a low crime rate or other quality of life issues. So there’s a fine balance to keep, and it’s a hard position to have as a public official to find out which hat to wear (industrial/retail/residential) sometimes.”
Clay County collector/assessor Paige Lamkin declined to release the information The Dispatch requested for this article.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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