Yazoo County Tax Collector Travis Crimm Jr. said he has no intention of going through another battle with the city over tax collections.
Crimm told the Board of Supervisors Friday that he hopes to continue collecting taxes for Yazoo City, but he will refuse if an agreement is not reached in a timely manner.
“I don’t want to get caught in the same situation as last year,” Crimm said. “We had to meet deadlines that we should have been working toward much earlier. I just won’t sign the agreement this time if it comes to that.”
Tax collections were part of ongoing negotiations between the city and county that began with fire protection and eventually included tax collections and emergency dispatching. The city and county reached a one-year agreement that includes the county continuing to collect taxes and provide emergency dispatching for the city for a fee and the city fire department acting as a secondary responder in the county.
Crimm said his comments on Friday were inspired by an earlier visit to the city clerk’s office where he asked about meeting with the city clerk to show him how to collect taxes.
“I encourage the taxpayers to stand up against it because I can tell you that it’s going to cause problems,” Crimm said. “My main concern is the taxpayers. If the city wants to collect taxes, they can collect them, but I think there will be problems.”
Crimm said he wants the county to go ahead and determine if the interlocal agreement will be continued.
“I was under the impression that we were going to try to work toward a long term agreement,” he said. “If we’re going to do that, let’s start now. Last year we waited too late. From my standpoint, I won’t sign the agreement.”
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen recently approved the purchase of software that would allow the city to collect taxes.
“If there’s any way to begin the negotiations now let’s do that because this is going to create problems for the taxpayers, and it’s probably going to create problems for our office down the road,” Crimm said.
In other business during Friday’s meeting:
n The board voted unanimously to abandon Turnage Road after no one objected during a public hearing on the subject.
Turnage road is a gravel road off of Myrleville Road. It is about two miles long and has no bridges.
District 2 Supervisor David Berry said all of the landowners with property served by the road agreed that they want it to become a private road.
“This will save the county some money because we will no longer have to maintain it, and I can use that money on other roads in District 2,” Berry said.
n The board approved the low bid of $7,476 by Security Services of Cleveland for a security system to protect the courthouse annex. The board sought bids for an alarm system with cameras after a recent burglary where someone broke into the chancery clerk’s office, the temporary office of the Chamber of Commerce and some vending machines. The burglar attempted to gain entry into the justice court offices but failed.
n The board asked Sheriff Jake Sheriff to look into the possibility of Crimestoppers offering a reward for arrests in the theft of county road signs. Road sign theft is a persistent problem in the county, costing money and time that workers could be spending on other projects.
“It’s working us to death, and it’s going to cause someone their life,” Berry said, adding that emergency responders may be unable to quickly find a road if the sign is missing.
