Jackson County Manager Explains Why Property Tax Increase is Needed

Property taxes may be increasing for some local home and business owners.The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will vote on the proposed tax increase in the next few weeks, but not before they hear more from property owners.

“When is it going to stop?” William Carlisle asked at the meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commisioners.

Taxes will increase by 3%, even though commissioners won’t raise the millage rate. Rock Freeman, Board Member for the Habitat of Humanity encouraged the Board to reach out to small businesses and bring in more revenue instead of increasing taxes.

“I was hoping more folks would show up and more people would appeal to you all to reduce the rollback the millage rate even if its only a tenth I would like 3 tenths or 4 tenth roll it back, 3 tenths would be great,” Freeman expressed.

But county manager, Kevin Poe, says they need the money to meet county budget demands so they need to increase it.

“If we adopted the rollback millage rate we would basically collect the same amount of property tax in 2017 as we propose in 2016. No they’re not going to consider that. We’ve got some increases in our budget that we need the additional revenue to cover,” Poe stated.

County manager says there are no considerations for a rollback from the board. But Chairman, Tom Crow, said they are working hard to give the public a break.

“Now as things improve we will take another look at it and see if theres some implemented increases we can make,” Crow shared.

There will be two more public hearings for the community to come out and voice what they have to say about the tax increase. The Board will make their final decision on the proposal following the last hearing. It will be on October 12th at the Jackson County Courthouse.

 

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