I certainly sympathize with residents who oppose Columbia’s annexation plan because it will increase their property taxes. No one likes paying taxes, and any new tax is never going to be welcomed by citizens.
Yet that’s precisely why Mississippi’s annexation law leans heavily in favor cities: No one would ever choose to be annexed, just as no one would ever choose to pay taxes, yet it’s necessary at times to meet the growth patterns of municipalities.
Here’s what happens: Cities incorporate as they are first settled. Over the decades, growth proceeds outward in a ring around the city. That new growth is clearly connected with the city, but it is not part of it because the city limits do not automatically expand.
If the city does not annex, the result over time is that its resources are drained because its property tax base is not growing. In Mississippi that is particularly pronounced because senior citizens get a large discount on their property taxes, so as a population ages among older people who have lived in the city for a long time (as opposed to those younger families who tend to build in growth areas outside the city limits) the tax base declines even more steeply.
This pattern is not unique to Columbia; it’s been played out in cities throughout America over the past few decades. Locally, you can look at Hattiesburg and Laurel as examples or regionally Jackson, Memphis and Atlanta.
Columbia has certainly suffered from those effects. There’s been essentially no new housing construction in the city limits for many years, and it has put a strain on the city’s services.
When Mayor Justin McKenzie and the current Board of Aldermen took office in 2017, they began trying to chip away at a lot of those problems. Annexation is a part of that solution. And while I do feel for those 900-something residents who stand to be annexed, their voices of opposition should not drown out the legitimate interests of the 6,000-something people who do live in the city limits now.
If you look at the 12 standards of reasonableness that Mississippi courts use to judge annexation cases, Columbia’s plan is a likely bet to win.
It proposes taking in a reasonable area that is already part of the city in all but name only. It doesn’t cross any geographical boundaries like a river nor does it do any weird meandering to only take in certain places that it wants, like a pending proposal by Hattiesburg to incorporate parts of Bellevue along U.S. 98 does. And the property owners in the areas being sought to be annexed have “because of their reasonable proximity to the corporate limits of the municipality (enjoyed) economic and social benefits of the municipality without paying their fair share of taxes,” to borrow the phrasing directly from the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Lakeview residents can tar and feather me if they’d like, but that’s the truth.
It should also be noted that the increase in property taxes for homeowners will not be as substantial as some have supposed because the city’s property tax rate is much smaller than the county’s and the city school district’s, both of which annexed residents are already paying. Also, some of the increased millage will be offset by a drop from the county fire taxes and a few other areas.
In the end, it comes down to whether it’s beneficial to live as part of a community, organized in this case as the city of Columbia, or just to go at it alone. I believe that having a city of Columbia is absolutely crucial for the success of everyone who lives here, whether in the city limits or not.
A growing Columbia raises all ships . It means more people moving to the area, more jobs and more opportunity. If the city can set the stage for that to happen, it will be well worth the extra that annexed residents pay in property taxes.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him via email at csmith@columbianprogress.com or call (601) 736-2611.
