At a public budget hearing last week, Columbus citizens decried heightened tax bills that stem from the city’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Property taxes are set to drop slightly in The Friendly City in Fiscal Year 2025, but an increase in property valuations via new ad valorem tax rates approved by the city council on Thursday of last week means higher tax bills. Homeowners without a homestead exemption will pay 21% more in taxes this year compared to last year.
“I did check on the potential of what I would be paying…and I get a nice little increase,” Julie Parker stated to council members during the hearing.
“You can handle it,” Vice Mayor and Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens responded.
Based on the increase in ad valorem tax rates, residents whose home was valued at $100,000 will pay $284 more in taxes, Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told the Commercial Dispatch. Those with homestead exemptions will get less of an increase in rates.
The council voted 4-1 in favor of a total FY 2025 “millage” rate of 118.5, which includes 53 mills for the city and 65.5 mills for the school district. A mill is used to measure ad valorem taxes which are collected on real and personal property and calculated based on their value. One mill generates $100 in taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value, or $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
Ward 5 Council Stephen Jones opposes the new tax rate. Instead, he wants to lower the city’s rate by 3.98 mills to 50.13, generating approximately the same ad valorem taxes as FY 2024. But Tax Assessor Andrews said that this year is Lowndes County’s turn to shoulder a reassessment from the Mississippi Department of Revenue, which raised home values an average of 18%. The values were increased to reflect current construction costs.
Lowndes County supervisors are set to approve the county’s FY 2025 tax rate in September, though Board President Trip Hairston believes the board is leaning towards a modest 0.28-mill increase. Due to employee wage pressure, new equipment needs, and inflation, the county needs more tax revenue.
“What we’re talking about now is maybe shaving off some millage,” Hairston said. “I’m committed to trying to hold that thing down, but the county is not immune from the pressures caused by inflation.”
Mississippi counties are required to adopt MDOR’s updated values on a prescribed cycle through 2026.
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