Lowndes Co. School District will hold a public hearing on 2022 budget

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Lowndes County residents will have a chance to weigh in on the county school district’s 2022 budget this week. The school district is holding a public hearing Thursday to discuss the county’s share of that budget. The school board is requesting 4 million dollars more in ad valorem tax money from Lowndes County than they received last fiscal year. Ad valorem taxes included those on your home, car tags, business equipment, and rental property. The proposed tax hike would represent about an extra 100 dollars a year on a 100 thousand dollar home. The county and the school board have gone to court to overrate some properties that should be taxed. The school district believes that businesses that have come off of their fee in lieu agreements should be taxed as the new property, and therefore, at a higher rate. Supervisors say that property values aside, the percentage of increase the school district is asking for would require the voters to step in. “The school board can raise the percentage, raise taxes by 4% without doing anything. That can be in their normal increase every year. Anything over 7% would require a referendum. And so, therefore; I believe with a 16% increase, regardless of how it’s defined, is much more than a 7%, and would require a referendum,” said Board President Trip Hairston. The Public Hearing is at 5:30 Thursday evening at the Lowndes County School District Office.