LIBERTY — Amite County supervisors face some difficult decisions as the Sept. 15 deadline to finalize the county’s 2011-12 budget approaches.
Figures released at Thursday’s board meeting indicate the county’s assessed property revenues declined for the second consecutive year, dropping about $3.9 million to $82.4 million.
Assessed values dropped by $1.9 million to $86.3 million between 2009-10 and the current year.
“If you want to keep your tax stream constant, the only way you can keep the that constant when your appraised values fall is to increase your millage,” Chancery Clerk Ronny Taylor said. “The consensus was not to have a tax increase this year.”
Supervisors will consider a 1.6-mill increase for the Amite County School District at the Sept. 12 budget meeting. The increase will offset a projected $118,000 decrease in school funding if the rate remains at 32.84 mills. The increase would take the county’s total millage rate to 76.53.
“If my values have gone down, and you raise the millage — when you say raise the millage, everyone goes, ‘Oh my taxes are going to go up’ — they don’t,” said county Tax Assessor Jennifer Lindsey.
“If my value has gone down, I’m still going to be paying the same tax dollar at the end,” she said.
The county’s general fund, road and bridge fund, contributions to Southwest Mississippi Community College and others likely will not see a millage increase. They are projected to lose a combined $159,000 in funding.
Taylor said a tax increase likely will not be necessary because the county does not have any debt, and has more than half a million dollars on hand.
“The only way we could (avoid a tax increase) would be to use funds we have on hand,” Taylor said. “We are blessed that we don’t have any debt, and we do have a considerable amount of money on hand.”
The county is projected to close out the 2010-11 fiscal year with $574,000 remaining in the general fund, and may end with more than $800,000 on hand. Taylor added the county has collected about $202,000 in oil severance taxes, and fine collections exceeded projections.
In other business, the board:
• Hired Larry Corey Robins as a full-time hopper effective Sept. 1 for $1,326 per month. The board also accepted James Collins’ resignation from the position Robins will fill.
• Approved an auction for seized guns and vehicles for the Amite County Sheriff’s Department.
• Approved the termination of Brashawanda Franklin from the sheriff’s department.
• Approved beer permits for Countyline One-Stop, Brookside Grocery and Mike & Belinda’s One-Stop.
• Approved trips for Circuit Clerk Sharon Walsh to the circuit clerks’ convention in Tunica in September; Lindsey to the tax assessor/collector mid-winter seminar in Natchez in October; justice court judges Louis Green and Roger Arnold to the fall professional judicial development seminar in Choctaw in October; Veterans Services officer Jim Sterling to county veteran officer school in Flowood in October; and solid waste enforcement officer Murry Toney to the state fire investigators seminar in Vicksburg in October.
• Approved a $9.47 reimbursement for ice to Leroy Hansford.
• Approved a combined $119 to Melvin Jackson for a commercial driver’s license and CDL test.
