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CALEDONIA – The board of aldermen approved increasing property taxes by nearly 17% for next fiscal year at its Friday evening meeting.

The board approved a property tax rate of 17.5 mills, which is a 2.5-mill increase from this fiscal year. The increase is meant to cover additional costs, including an overhauled town marshal’s office, increased building upkeep costs, and an increased payroll for the town, Mayor Betty Darnell said.

The millage increase will add $110,092 in revenue. The value of a mill — which is the amount of taxes 1 mill will generate based on property values — will increase from $16,000 to $23,091.

A mill is a unit used to measure property taxes, and the increase will raise a Caledonia homeowner’s tax by $37.50 per $100,000 of value without a homestead exemption or by $25 with an exemption. This does not include any potential increases coming from Lowndes County School District or Lowndes County taxes.

Darnell said the town needs the additional revenue to help cover two recently hired full-time positions in the town Marshal’s office and a potential third full-time officer position the town hopes to hire in the next year to give the office enough personnel to cover a 24-hour shift.

Caledonia has five part-time deputy marshals that help to cover two eight-hour shifts daily with the office. The office’s resources have been limited, so the town receives assistance from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office for the other eight uncovered hours if needed.

“We have an assistant, so we have a regular second shift, and we’ve just hired a person (who) wants third shift. But he has another job, so it will probably be … maybe eight days a month,” Darnell told The Dispatch after the meeting. “We don’t know for sure yet. So we’re getting there. That’s where we want to be. And if this works out, we can hire a full-time third shift.”

Alderman Tammy McCool said getting the department up and going on its own and not reliant on LCSO assistance has been a priority of the board for many years now.

“Every time we run for election, that’s one thing that people say, ‘When will we have a full-time marshal department?’” McCool said. “And every year we come in trying to work on this. … That’s what I want to do. Just keep the town safe.”

Beyond covering the payroll and expenses for those positions, the roughly $150,000 jump in the anticipated budget for Caledonia also includes a $30,000 increase to building and grounds upkeep and a $6,000 increase to utilities.

Darnell said the town over the last two years has taken on both its town hall and library, which were donated in-kind by the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors.

With those additional buildings on the books, the board is now responsible for paying the upkeep on those buildings, which significantly raised the line item in the board’s proposed budget.

“The county owned this building up until the year before last,” Darnell said. “… If the roof starts leaking again, it’s us. It’s not the county, and we own the library and its doors (are) all connected.”

Darnell said overall she believes that Caledonia’s taxes, while higher than last fiscal year, are still notably lower than other towns in Lowndes County.
“If you look at Artesia, they’re 40-something percent, and so I mean we’re so low that people are not that concerned … if it goes up. That’s why we’re doing it year by year,” Darnell said. “If it goes up only 2 1/2 (mills), it’s not very much money. And they see what we’re doing with it.”

The town’s budget will be adopted at the board’s next meeting Friday.