STARKVILLE – Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins tried to get the board of aldermen to commit to lowering the city’s property tax rate at Tuesday night’s board meeting in City Hall.

The board voted 5-2 against the motion with only Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn joining Perkins in support.

“I’d love to cut taxes, and I think it would help the city,” Ward 3 Alderman Kyle Skinner said during the meeting. “But I would need to know where this is going to come from that doesn’t affect public safety.”

With property values expected to rise an estimated 20% next year, primarily from a reassessment from the Mississippi Department of Revenue that raised home and commercial values, the city’s tax rate can drop while the city maintains the same collections.

However, if the city maintains its current tax rate of 34 mills, it projects raising almost $13.15 million from property taxes, about a $2.1 million increase from last year’s collections. The city’s current draft budget anticipates maintaining the tax rate, Ward 2 Alderwoman and budget chair Sandra Sistrunk told The Dispatch on Tuesday afternoon.

What that would mean for taxpayers: the owner of a house now valued at $100,000 will see that value rise to about $120,000 and can expect to pay $68 more in city taxes next year with a homestead exemption and $102 more without homestead, if the tax rate stays the same. That does not count any potential increases coming from Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District or Oktibbeha County taxes.

If the city chose to drop the tax rate to 28.69 mills, as Perkins proposed, the taxpayer would see little to no increase in their property taxes. That plan, however, would leave the city operating at a $1 million shortfall.

The shortfall is caused by almost $2 million in additional costs already approved by the aldermen, which includes debt service for road work, an increase in city health insurance costs and changes to the fire department, Sistrunk told The Dispatch.

“(A decrease to 28.69 mill) would be, in my opinion, fairly catastrophic,” Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch. “I don’t know we would do that without cutting police and fire, and I find that to be an unacceptable alternative. But there are other things that we can cut out, like outside contributions. So you wouldn’t fund the library, you wouldn’t fund the Humane Society, you wouldn’t fund the SMART bus, any other number of things that are, I think, incredibly important to our population and our citizenry.”

Sistrunk said the fire and police department make up an estimated 40% to 50% of the budget, so she does not see a way to make up the shortfall without cuts to those services specifically.

When bringing forward his resolution, Perkins requested the budget committee meet to work out where cuts could be made when bringing forward his resolution. However, he declined to comment on what cuts in the budget he thinks could be made.

“I don’t know (how to account for the shortfall),” Vaughn told The Dispatch following the meeting. “That’s what the budget’s here for to find a way for us.”

During the meeting, Sistrunk and Spruill said the board should be involved in the decision of what to cut as any further cuts made will impact policy.

“The board with the adoption of their budget will say what their policies are and what they think is important for us to be spending money,” Sistrunk told The Dispatch prior to the meeting. “And if the board chooses not to spend money in certain areas they have said it is less important.”

If the city was to generate enough revenue to just make up for the shortfall, that would lower the millage to 31.22, but taxpayers would still see an increase. A house now valued at $100,000 will still see that value rise to about $120,000 and can expect to pay $34.64 more in city taxes next year with a homestead exemption and $51.96 more without homestead, at that tax rate. This is about half the expected increase of maintaining the current mill rate.

“(A 31.22 mill rate) certainly is a compromise, and it depends on what the board intends to cut,” Spruill told The Dispatch ahead of the meeting Tuesday. “…There are a lot of things to consider that go with that, and I think those will be things that will be discussed at another budget meeting.”

Sistrunk told The Dispatch if the board was to make this compromise, aldermen would need to consider denying the increased budget requests made by department heads, which could in turn prevent the hiring of a new code enforcement officer, additional police officers and park maintenance workers.

During the board meeting, Sistrunk requested a special-call meeting be scheduled to get board input on where further cuts can be made. Spruill set the special-call meeting for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The board will have its second budget and tax rate hearing at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 1 in City Hall. At that time, it can vote on the tax rate.