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With the new fiscal year starting today, property owners will be receiving their tax bills in the mail soon.
Depending on where you live, those could be higher than last year, even if you haven’t bought new property or added on to your home or business. In some cases, your tax bill might be lower.
So whose bills are going up? Whose are decreasing? And why?
How are property taxes figured?
Property, or ad valorem, taxes are measured in mills. One mill represents one-tenth of 1% of a property’s taxable value.
Each year, cities, towns and counties approve mill rates – the number of mills each body will tax on properties – to fund their budgets, as well as those of public schools.
If you live in a city or town, you will pay municipal, county and school taxes on your property. If you live outside a city or town limit, property owners will only pay county and school taxes.
Why should you expect your tax bill to soar in Oktibbeha County?
Homeowners and business owners in Oktibbeha County can expect significant increases on their tax bills this year.
Most of that is due to the implementation of a new Mississippi Department of Revenue manual, which raised the value of homes and commercial buildings by an average of 20%. This came primarily due to MDOR raising the assessments of building materials and other construction-based costs closer to their actual value, since the manual was last updated in 2010.
The new MDOR values were implemented across the state over four years. While Lowndes County residents took the hit in fall 2024, Oktibbeha will see it this year.
So, the owner of a $100,000 home would, on average, see that same home valued at $120,000 this year.
Plus, Starkville and Sturgis left their millage rate the same, while the county and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District rates reduced only slightly – not nearly enough to eliminate the tax increase created by MDOR. Maben actually increased its mill rate.
What that means for the owner of that home valued at $100,000 last year: if you live outside any city or town limit, expect your taxes to increase $223 with a homestead exemption and about $334 without that exemption.
If that homeowner lives in Starkville, expect a $291 increase with homestead and a $437 jump without homestead. In Sturgis, the increase is about $303 with homestead and $454 without. In Maben, it’s up $361 with homestead and $541 without.
Double those increases if your home is worth $200,000. Triple them if it’s worth $300,000.
What about Lowndes County?
Lowndes County is much simpler to figure and much less drastic since there are no MDOR adjustments.
Mill rates for Columbus, Crawford, Artesia and Columbus Municipal School District all stayed the same, while Lowndes County’s dropped by 0.5 mills and Lowndes County School District dropped 0.46 mills.
So if you live in Columbus or in CMSD territory outside the city limits, your taxes should drop $5 with homestead and $7.50 without homestead per $100,000 of value. In LCSD territory, it should drop $9.60 with homestead and $14.40 without homestead per $100,000 of value.
Unless you live in Caledonia, where the town mill rate rose by 2.5. Despite the rate changes in the county and LCSD, Caledonia property owners can still expect a $15.40 increase with homestead and a $23.10 increase without homestead per $100,000 of value.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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