As the county school board moves forward with its upcoming budget, school officials have discovered that growth figures provided by Yazoo County Tax Assessor Denise Robertson included about a $155,000 calculation error.
Dr. Ken Barron, superintendent of the Yazoo County School District, appeared before the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors to clarify the district’s tax request to the county. Based on the district’s request, there was a 1.103 millage increase in its request from last year.
However, county leaders were able to balance the upcoming budget to maintain the same millage rate of 70.80 mills from last year. Yazoo County taxpayers will not see an increase in taxes for the upcoming fiscal year.
But Barron said the growth figures provided by Robertson were not correct. The growth figures are an instrumental calculation in the district’s budget preparations.
“We try to ask for the same dollar amount from last year,” Barron said. “I can drill down the numbers to be very specific. But from the calculation we received from the tax assessor’s office, we should have been $199,600 more in new growth. That figure turned out to be only about $45,000 in new growth.”
The calculations originally provided to the school district from Robertson resulted in a $154,600 error.
“We used the numbers we were given,” Barron said. “We have got to have the right numbers. We get the numbers, and then it is the wrong numbers. Somebody has got to do their job down there. I am not trying to be ugly. I am just being honest.”
“We agree,” added Supervisor Lee Moore.
“This is a reoccurring problem,” replied Yazoo County Chancery Clerk Quint Carver. “This did not just start.”
Robertson was also not present at last week’s county board meeting.
“I just wanted to come to clarify the situation with our tax request,” Barron said. “I know you have already verified your business, and we sent our things in. It was not our intent to ask you for an increase in millage. That was not what we wanted to do.”
Barron also said his board needs the figures from the tax assessor’s office in a timely manner. The district is required by law to have their figures set by Aug. 15.
“We have never been able to get that since I have been here,” Barron said.
“We just need the numbers,” Barron continued. “When we called down here in July, we were sent to the tax assessor’s office. But after we get the numbers, we were told the numbers were wrong. We have got to have the correct numbers. I am not trying to toss anybody under the bus, but we don’t want to do something wrong.”
