For the third straight year, Lowndes County supervisors voted Thursday to underfund Lowndes County School District’s request for local ad valorem taxes, this time by about $1.3 million.
Even with that reduction, county taxes will go up by 3.57 mills in the next fiscal year, with 1.57 mills of the hike stemming from the school district.
The move during the board of supervisors’ meeting, in which it also approved the county budget for Fiscal Year 2023, is the latest in a series of conflicts between the county and the school district over funding — an issue that has been in litigation since 2020.
This year the LCSD asked for $22,087,302 to fund operations, a slight bump from the $21.3 million it requested last year. It also asked for $7,395,917 for debt service.
The supervisors argued that the district’s operations request is more than the law allows.
“My recommendation is that we make a finding the operations portion of their budget is outside of the 7 percent allowed by law,” President Trip Hairston said. “I propose that we pass a 6.99 percent increase, which is allowed by law.”
State law allows the district to request an increase of up to 4 percent from the previous year’s request for operations. An increase of more than 4 percent, but less than 7 percent, could trigger a citizen-petitioned referendum. An increase of more than 7 percent requires a direct referendum.
Hairston moved to reduce the district’s request, and was seconded by District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks. The motion passed 4-1, with District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders voting no.
The request, as approved, was based on a mill value of $546,000. It included $20.6 million, or 37.9 mills, for operations; $3.9 million, or 7.19 mills, for general obligation bonds; $1.6 million, or 3 mills, for a 3-mill capital improvement note; and $1.8 million, or 3.35 mills, in shortfall notes accrued from the two previous years supervisors underfunded LCSD’s request.
Sanders made it clear he didn’t favor approving a school district tax increase at all, calling the idea “ludicrous.”
“They don’t need the money,” Sanders said. “They need to keep the millage exactly where it is right now, or they need to lower their millage and use some of that reserve they have. … I don’t see any reason for us to raise taxes on all those taxpayers out there when they don’t need the money.”
Brooks said that wasn’t the county’s fight.
“That fight is not our fight,” Brooks said. “It’s the taxpayers’ fight. If they get to a point where they say, ‘Hell, you’ve got all this money and you’re raising our taxes.’ But until then there’s not anything we can do.”
The cut was the latest move in a disagreement about how taxes are calculated that goes back to 2020, when the LCSD sued the supervisors for not fully funding its tax request. LCSD had claimed about $50 million in added assessed value as new property, which does not count against its 4 percent increase for operations.
The “new property” LCSD claims comes from fee-in-lieu agreements that have expired. Those agreements allow industries that invest more than $60 million to pay one-third of its assessed value for 10 years. In 2020-21, several fee in lieu arrangements expired, and the district claimed it could claim that as new property because it had never been on the tax rolls.
Chancery Court Judge Rodney Faver agreed with the district, but the supervisors have appealed that ruling and continued to cut the tax requests. As a result, the school district is taking on debt to make up for the shortfalls in its request.
Lowndes County School District Superintendent Sam Allison said he looks forward to the resolution of the lawsuit.
“We’re hopeful the Supreme Court will make a ruling on how the fee in lieu properties can be counted when they come off,” he said. “I feel like (Faver’s) ruling was correct, and we’ll just have to wait.”
A ruling on the lawsuit is not expected before next year.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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