The Vicksburg Warren School District is still quibbling over ad valorem taxes and the millage rate for this fiscal year.

The board met in a regularly schedule meeting Thursday night in the school district boardroom.

District 3 school board member James Stirgus Jr. again questioned finance director Shaquita Burke about whether taxes would increase in the 2017 fiscal year. Stirgus said he spoke with someone from the county who informed him under the current proposal the millage would be raised 1 mill.

“According to them, we’re asking for $32.266 million, which is a 1.75 percent increase which is a 1 mill increase,” Stirgus said. “But you said in the meeting we were just asking for the straight $30 million.”

Superintendent Chad Shealy said he had heard the board of supervisors came up with those figures, but the district is not accepting the increase.

“When we got that information, we put a line in the sand and said we do not want any more taxes raised. We do not want a millage increase,” Shealy said. “I’m not sure how they’re calculating, but we didn’t ask for a nickel more.”

Burke said she isn’t sure how the board of supervisors came up with the 1.75 percent increase either and said she has tried to reach out to them to understand how they came up with the figure.

“We only asked for what we collected, and if you look at our collections, the $30 million, that’s what we collected last year; and if you add our homestead on top of that, that is what we asked for,” Burke said, adding the homestead taxes should not be part of the millage.

She thinks the supposed 1 mill increase could be based on an amount the school board published in a legal advertisement and not on the number presented to the board in the final, official resolution, which was lower.

Burke said she would work with the board to iron out the millage number to assure the school district receives no more or less than last year.

District 4 school board member Joe Loviza said he wants to make the status of the millage clear.

“Understand, the school system is not projecting additional taxes,” he said.

Burke also updated the board on revenue the district received in July from casinos, ad valorem taxes and state funding from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. Casino revenue has consistently dropped each year since 2012, and in July revenue to the school district was at a low of $635,280.66.

“I’m hopeful that it starts to level off,” Burke said.

Ad valorem collections have risen since 2011, and the district received $30.9 million in July, which is 103 percent of what was requested. MAEP funding has fluctuated throughout the years, and this July the district received $2.1 million.

“Based on projection if we continue as we are, we could actually end the year with $2.26 million better than our budget,” Burke said.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m. in the school district boardroom, 1500 Mission 66.