Volunteer fire departments have as good a case as anyone for why they deserve more property tax money. Their workers are all volunteers, saving a tremendous amount from if the rural communities they protect were forced to pay wages, and most all of the time their members live within their service area. That means they’re going to be paying the taxes, too, and thus have incentive to keep them at a reasonable amount.
Representatives from the various volunteer fire departments in Marion County recently met with the Board of Supervisors asking for a property tax increase of 1 mill.
It’s one of many additional requests for money the board has entertained, but it’s clear money is going to be tight for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
Marion County is simply not growing — in fact, it’s shrinking at a rate of about 1 percent per year. That makes it hard to meet the rising costs of inflation while at the same time trying to provide new services when needs arise. It’s just difficult to manage during a decline, and something has to give.
I don’t pity the supervisors for having to make tough decisions, especially right before an election year, but I suppose they knew what they were getting into when they ran for office.
The request from the fire departments got me thinking: How does Marion County’s property tax rate compare with those across the state? So I took numbers from the Mississippi Department of Revenue for 2016-2017 (the most recent available) and subtracted out the part of the property tax that goes to schools. That’s because that’s a separate function — education — that school boards, not boards of supervisors, control. Also, the property tax rate for schools varies within a county based on if you live in a city or county school district.
After making that adjustment, Marion County had the 15th highest property tax rate out of 82 counties at 84.06 mills. The highest was Humphreys County, a rural county in the Delta with a small tax base (its only significant city, Belzoni, has only 2,000 residents), at 145 mills.
Other notables:
- Hinds, fifth, 102.69 mills
- Jeff Davis, 21st, 80.72 mills
- Lamar, 41st, 71.37 mills
- Forrest, 46th, 69.6 mills
- Choctaw, 82nd, 42 mills
Marion County’s position in the highest 20 percent of the counties points to little wiggle room to increase taxes further. Yet it’s clear that the current amount being generated by taxes is not sufficient to keep up roads and other necessary functions of government. Hence why the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Aug. 6 and sent it to the legislature and statewide elected officials asking for a portion of the internet sales tax to go to counties for roads and bridges.
It’s possible that counties will get a portion of that money, but the pot is just not that big. State Revenue Commissioner Herb Frierson estimates the tax on internet sales will bring in an additional $50 million to $75 million per year. Yet the state needs another $375 million per year just for its road and bridge maintenance. So once the state takes a cut of the internet money and you divide the remnant left for the counties by 82, it’s not going to make that much of an impact.
All the factors taken together point to Marion County having to make cuts rather than increasing budgets.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at (601) 736-2611 or csmith@columbianprogress.com.
