[8/20/03]If nothing changes, residents countywide will see a small decrease in taxes on their vehicles starting Oct. 1 and real estate and other personal property in January.

Tax-setting time has arrived and the Warren County Board of Supervisors has set a budget hearing as the first agenda for 9 a.m. Sept. 2.

The Vicksburg Warren School District has already set its budget, which supervisors must fund, and calculations show tax rates can be cut slightly to fund the amount schools want.

In turn, supervisors indicate they will keep county tax rates level and Vicksburg’s officials are forecasting the same. Their new budget years begin Oct. 1, meaning tax rates must formally be set before then.

For county operations, supervisors expect existing tax rates to generate $12.7 million in 2004, which is $630,913 more than this year due to higher valuations and new construction. They expect the new money to be sufficient to pay the added costs of local government.

Richard George, president of the board and District 5 supervisor, pointed out that the River Region Medical Center will come on the tax rolls in FY 2004 for the first time. The increase in taxes generated on the land from when it was undeveloped, however, will go toward retiring the debt incurred in building infrastructure for the hospital such as roads and drainage.

School trustees operate on a budget year that begins each July 1. With full funding from the state this year, trustees approved a $59.5 million budget with 49 percent of that coming from the state and about 33 percent or $20.2 million from local taxpayers. Supervisors say the local amount, up from $19.7 million for schools this year, can be funded by dropping the tax levy from 81.29 mills to 80.59 mills. The .7 mill difference is minuscule for most taxpayers, but reverses a trend of increases for schools during the past several years. Schools also get money from federal sources and tuition and fees.

Specifically, Warren County Tax Assessor Richard Holland said the owner of a home outside Vicksburg’s corporate limits, with regular homestead exemption, valued at $100,000, would see next year’s tax bill drop by about $7 from about $513 to about $505. If the homeowner is older than 65, the drop would be about $1.75, from about $203.23 to $201.48.

The county’s proposed spending plan already has its $630,913 in additional money allocated. The general county fund will get $201,818; the reappraisal trust will get $10,000; the road, bridge and culvert fund will receive $60,000; debt service on the port refinancing and Warren County Youth Detention Center bond issues will receive $36,270; Hinds Community College will receive $60,500 and paying Tax Increment Financed projects, including the hospital complex, will receive $259,325.

“We are trying to stay within our means,” George said, adding Warren County is in better shape than many other counties in Mississippi. “We are one of the counties that have an additional source of revenue from gaming.”

He said Warren County supervisors try to limit spending of gaming revenues to capital expenses such as the new roof for the Warren County Jail, the Youth Detention Center, vehicles and equipment for the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and road and bridge improvements.