STARKVILLE – Despite Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s plans to borrow up to $125 million to build a new high school by 2027, that debt will not show up in next year’s tax bill for district patrons.
In fact, SOCSD taxpayers may see their tax bills decrease in the short term.
The district is requesting a total of $33.7 million that will be collected from district taxpayers based on their real and personal property values.
Of that request, $28.1 million is for operations, which includes the $27.7 million the district collected for operations last fiscal year and $402,675 for homestead exemption.
By law, school districts can request up to a 4% increase for operations from the previous year’s collections. Up to 7% can trigger a reverse referendum, and more than that requires a direct referendum. Homestead exemptions are not figured into that percentage.
The request includes $5.1 million to cover the district’s debt, including $1,161,672 to cover a 3-mill note for capital improvements and $3,958,578 for general obligation debt. It also includes $512,025 for the Millsaps Technology Center.
Now the district’s request goes to the county board of supervisors, which is responsible for setting the number of mills – or the tax rate – necessary to fund the budget.
A mill is used to measure property taxes. A 1-mill increase, for example, would add $10 to a homeowner’s tax bill per every $100,000 of property value.
For Fiscal Year 2025, it took the city 66.4 mills to fund the district’s request. This year’s request will require 0.45 fewer mills than last year at 65.95 mills total, which means district property owners would see their bill decrease by $4.50 per $100,000 of value.
Superintendent Tony McGee said the district was grateful to not have to request an increase to its operational request this year.
“We work hard to be good stewards of the district’s funds and are always mindful of the trust the community has placed in us to make sound financial decisions,” he wrote in a text to The Dispatch. “… We continue to focus every day on providing the most opportunities for students from the funds we receive.”
New high school
The school board is kicking the high school construction bonds down the road at least another year.
In fact, the board delayed issuing even $3.5 million of that debt this year to avoid any increase to the tax rate, Communications Director Haley Montgomery said.
“They were not wanting to add any millage to the tax bill basically, so we did not issue or purchase that bond … based on the bids that were open,” Montgomery told The Dispatch. “For this tax year, they didn’t want to add any additional millage or anything like that.”
SOCSD is currently authorized to borrow up to $125 million in bonds to cover construction of the new Starkville High School, with a hopeful completion date targeted for 2027.
However that doesn’t translate to a significant delay in completing the high school, Montgomery said. The district is still working with architects to determine specific programming needs for the high school.
“It’s (completion date is) fluid because it depends on the development process, depends on the funding, depends on construction and bidding process a lot,” she said. “And so for that, we’re not really … thinking that this particular delay is going to be a significant change to that … part of that is because that 2027 date is kind of ballpark.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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