Property owners concerned about taxes
More than 100 people facing annexation attended a meeting March 8 and expressed opposition, saying they don’t see benefits of being incorporated into Columbia and feel like the city just wants them for extra tax revenue.
“It’s a money grab, folks. It always has been and it always will be,” Clyde Woodward, an environmental engineer who lives on Columbia-Purvis Road and owns 38 acres in the proposed annexation area, said. “If you can’t manage the property and generate the income to manage the city streets of Columbia, Mississippi, what are your only options? You’ve got to go find someone else to pay your bills.”
The group, which met last Thursday night at the Church on Main, is circulating a petition it plans to present to the Board of Aldermen, and they are developing a list of questions as well for city officials regarding how annexation would work. Dutch Van Fleet, a Lakeview resident, said this week that they have amassed 52 signatures so far and that Cooper is working on getting more from other communities.
They also vowed to fight it in court if the city moves forward. “We have no intentions of just laying down so hopefully you guys are here because you feel the same way,” Jeremy Cooper, one of the organizers, said.
City officials have emphasized that they are only studying the issue and have not made any decisions yet about what to do. They have also said the annexation would provide additional services to residents, including police and fire protection and sewer service, and that it’s needed for the city to prosper and grow as a community.
But many of the people who would potentially be annexed said they are happy the way things are now and don’t want the additional tax burden.
Grant McArthur, a business owner in the annexation area who also helped put together the meeting, said county millage will go down a hair but city property taxes will increase. He said in a lot of cases fire insurance won’t go down much; he said his was $100 a year savings. He said car tags will go up, too.
“There’s not a person in here who feels like this will benefit us,” McArthur said.
Woodward said a 10th grader from Columbia High School could have come up with the same lines as the consultant, saying the city just wanted people who had money. He predicted the city will back off the size some after people object.
Woodward said he has a family history of more than 100 years in the area but moved outside the city limits because he wanted privacy and didn’t want to pay some of the city taxes. He warned about taxes on furniture and fixtures, things like desks and computers, not paid on a county basis.
He said he would offer his engineering company’s support without charge to oppose the annexation in a lawsuit.
“Let’s fight this thing to the very end,” Woodward said to a round of applause.
Cooper, who lives just outside of Lakeview, said Mississippi law requires a public convenience and necessity must be proven but said there are very few ways to fight annexation in this state.
He said where he’s at he doesn’t need any city utilities because he has a nine-year-old sewer system and is in the 98 East Water Association, which he called one of the state’s best. He also said he’s pleased with the county roads and sheriff’s office.
“When I built there in 2009 I didn’t pick that property out of chance. I picked it because it was outside the city school district and it was outside the city school limits for a reason. One was school choice for my daughter and the other was the tax burden,” he said.
He said the real problem is the city not managing its finances well enough to sustain itself and is trying to put the burden on people outside the city limits.
“I like calling Columbia home. I never wanted to be in the city limits because I was raised in the country and I consider where I’m at still a little bit country,” Cooper said. “The city gets a benefit from every person in this room already from us spending our money here.”
Rick Coulter, a Farm Bureau agent who said he’s been selling property insurance for 45 years, said 40 percent of home premiums are assigned to fire, 40 percent to wind, 10 percent in theft and 10 percent liability. He said Farm Bureau already gives people the city’s fire rating if they’re within five miles.
Coulter said home insurance won’t be going down that much, but commercial policies were the exception. He advised contacting your insurance agent to recalculate your rate.
Dewayne Stuckey, president of the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, said the department doesn’t have an official position on annexation, but he was there to share facts about what it does.
He added they’ll provide a temporary station on Airport Road until the annexation is over. If the Lakeview area is annexed, that station would go away. If not, it will figure out how to get something permanent. Stuckey said they didn’t want to invest a lot of money in a permanent station now if the area is going to be annexed.
George King of the Cedar Grove Harmony Water Association predicted it would be very expensive to provide water and sewer service to new areas.
He said the city would have to buy the water system from the existing operators and would have to tear the roads up in Lakeview to install sewers.
“As far as the water goes, it’s going to cost them a fortune to hook you up,” he said.
Marion County District 1 Supervisor Randy Dyess said he worked with the city for about 10.5 years, and when he was there under Mayor Harold Bryant they talked about annexation of Lakeview. Dyess said Bryant said the city didn’t do it because it couldn’t afford to buy water and run sewer and on top of that, lagoons were already to the maximum.
Lakeview resident Dutch Van Fleet, who has been circulating the petition, said in his 20 years of experience in the area that things the people do themselves are what is profitable, not what the government does for them. He said they have a good, workable situation now and he didn’t see how working for a “different master” would be a plus.
Realtor Tanya Holland, when asked about the effect of annexation on home resale values, said people often make a choice to move out because of taxes but now the city is following them.
Holland said her biggest question is how many businesses that can move anywhere will leave – to Jeff Davis County, for example -- because of annexation. She cited Buckley Transportation, which located near the airport, as an example of the type of business that could go.
“It will happen,” she said.
Cooper encouraged attendees to sign the petition and to call elected officials with their concerns.
He also thanked the Church on Main for allowing them to meet there.
“We were able to have an anti-Columbia meeting right downtown,” Cooper said just before the meeting closed.
Pictured Above: Jeremy Cooper speaks as Grant McArthur holds the microphone March 8 during an annexation meeting at the Church on Main. They are two of the organizers of an effort to fight the city’s efforts to take in new territory. | Photo by Charlie Smith
