A reduction in the value assigned to one Warren County block of land could revive talk of raising taxes during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors agreed Monday to cut the value of 17 parcels covering about 480 acres owned by Mississippi Bluffs Development LLC and Mississippi Bluffs Industrial Park LLC. It was one of six reductions granted.

The Bluffs property will be assessed as agricultural-use land instead of commercial property, lowering the tax value.

Both Bluffs firms had planned a casino and golf course on the sprawling site, located off Warrenton Road on what was once Vicksburg Chemical Company property.

Cheaper values were recommended by Wes Kight, a Winston County-based appraiser hired this year to handle real property appraisals. New values totaled $82,040, which represents a slice of more than 97 percent from the $3.3 million at which they were valued last year.

Kight, appearing with Tax Assessor Angela Brown during Monday’s meeting, told supervisors the land qualified for “ag use” because the acreage is “deep holes and ravines,” absent any commercial development. Brown voiced no objection to Kight’s stated recommendation.

“It’s eligible to receive ag use,” Kight said, based on multiple visits to the site with principals in the landowning firm. A 50,000-square-foot casino and adjacent 18-hole golf course were planned there in the early 2000s, but fell through in 2007 after the developer died and investors dropped out of the project. Since then, the development’s assets have been handled by various financial advisers and out-of-state law firms. The listed address for tax purposes is in Spring, Texas.

By law, values are assigned to land in Mississippi according to its use by Jan. 1 of each year, regardless of location. Land is deemed for use for agricultural purposes when it’s devoted to the commercial production of crops or other products of the soil. The definition includes fruit, timber, livestock or poultry.

Board President Bill Lauderdale asked Kight how he could reconcile what the property had fetched when it was shopped as a gaming and entertainment site versus reclassifying it the same as farm or timberland. As a whole, the development’s price tag was up to $190 million when the state approved the site as suitable a for piling-supported casino in January 2007.

“Just because (developers) asking a katrillion million dollars for it doesn’t matter,” Kight said. “We have to value it by what it’s currently used for.”

Earlier this month, supervisors were ready to close a $204,549 deficit looming for the 2013 budget with higher building permit fees and leaving three middle-management jobs vacant. A $25.60 tax hike was possible, but wasn’t to be any more than that. The gap was attributed to $13 million in personal property assigned to Ergon Refining that was in the budget but dropped from the tax roll last December.

By agreeing to reclassify Bluffs property, the budget hole can only grow. Supervisors didn’t speculate how much.

“We have more work to do on the budget,” District 1 Supervisor John Arnold said before the board adjourned.

“Yeah, I think so,” Lauderdale said.

Supervisors have set a public hearing on the budget for Sept. 4 at the courthouse, but after Monday’s changes, they are expected to meet again at least once informally to discuss the budget. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and by state law, supervisors must sign off on a budget before Sept. 15.

Other adjustments OK’d by the board, in alphabetical order, included:

• Bottin Consulting Group, which protested values on a residence at 233 Pebble Beach Drive. The new assessment is $431,020, down from $471,181.

• Breithaupt Appraisal Service, which received a $117,000 value on a residential parcel at 381 Warrenton Road. The previous assessment was $163,000.

• DiamondJacks Casino, which received a reduced value on its personal property, or equipment. The new assessment is $3,584,000. John Lewis, of Florence-based Statewide Appraisal, told the board the reduction resulted from corrected calculation error. The earlier assessment was not discussed in Monday’s meeting, and because it is listed as personal property, it is not readily available in county records.

• Sara Carlson Dionne, who received reduced values on homes on Hazel Drive and Alfred Drive. The Hazel Drive assessment was cut about $13,000, to $66,670, while the Alfred Drive assessment was reduced about $19,000, to $59,450.

• Vicksburg Healthcare LLC, a division of River Region Medical Center, which received a reduction on a former clinic at 3510 Pemberton Square Blvd. and the intensive care wing near the hospital’s main campus.

The clinic’s assessment was reduced by more than $103,000, to $650,140. The ICU wing was reduced about $3.5 million, to $9,648,850.

Assessments for Ameristar Casino, Armstrong Hardwood Flooring, Holiday Inn, La Quinta Inn & Suites and Rainbow Casino were kept the same at Lewis’ and Kight’s recommendations.