County to cut taxes

By Adam Koob (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Friday, September 5, 2008

NATCHEZ — After hours of meetings and discussions about the Adams County budget — it’s finally completed.

And when it was all said and done the new budget came with a tax decrease for county residents.

President of the Adams County Board of Supervisors Henry Watts said his main goal while working on the new budget was to lower taxes.

While Watts said he was personally pleased with the new budget, and lowered taxes, he said there should one group even more pleased with the new budget — the taxpayers.

“Taxpayers should feel good about this,” he said. “They’re going to see a whole lot of savings.”

While Watts said he was not sure of the exact savings to individuals, or businesses, he said they would both save in several areas.

Watts said the decrease could result in residents and business paying less in ad valorem taxes, automobile tags, business fixtures, and other properties.

“People are going to save on more than just their houses,” he said.

County administrator Cathy Walker said the decrease of one mill, roughly equal to $184,000, was made possible by a combination of budget cuts for the upcoming year and new homes and business being added to the tax rolls.

Walker basically said since the county is collecting more taxes, and made cuts in the budget, there was no need to collect 119.34 mills as was done in the previous budget year.

Watts said the addition of new homes and business added approximately $265,000 to the county’s tax roll.

Watts said there were no specific items cut from the budget that equaled a large sum of money but that several small reductions were made in the budget.

Walker said the cuts were made possible only after a great deal work on the supervisors’ behalf.

“They made an extra effort to find things that could be reduced,” she said.

And supervisor Darryl Grennell said the reductions that made the tax decrease possible are not common.

In 12 years on the board Grennell said this is the biggest reduction of millage he has seen.

“It’s very rare,” he said.

During the budget process Grennell said he was more concerned with making a budget that protects the county from unforeseen incidents, like Gustav.

However, in the end Grennell said he was pleased with the budget and the tax reduction.

“I feel comfortable with it,” he said.

And both Grennell and Watts said with the addition of new business like the CCA prison facility about to open, the county will be in even better financial condition next year.

The first public hearing on the budget will be at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the supervisors’ office.