Yazoo County voters could see an increase in their taxes as county leaders and school officials toss around figures. The county school district leaders said its request comes with a hefty increase because of a new funding formula set by the state. And county leaders were already looking into a millage increase with an employee pay raise.
As of press time, the projected millage rate had not been released for the upcoming fiscal year. But the county board said the school district’s request alone could lead to a 4.53 mill increase, which doesn’t include the county’s own millage increase.
The Yazoo County School District requested $8,758,191 in its ad valorem tax request to county leaders for the upcoming fiscal year. School officials said that request includes an $860,000 increase because of a new funding formula from the state, along with $109,873 in shortfall funds from fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2024.
Although the county school officials said their hands are tied with the request due to the new funding formula supplied by the state, the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors are concerned because of the possibility of raising taxes to accommodate the district’s request, on top of their own projected millage increase.
But school officials said they had no other choice than to make the request.
“There is a new funding formula,” said Davis Dalton, chief financial officer with the county school district. “We went from MAEP (Mississippi Adequate Education Program) to MSFF (Mississippi Student Funding Formula), which was passed this year in the 2024 session. The way the formula is calculated now is student enrollment based. MAEP was teacher unit based.”
After passing through the Senate and the House, Gov. Tate Reeves signed the new MSFF plan, which replaced MAEP on July 1. According to House Education Committee Chairman Rob Roberson, the new formula would assist poorer districts, low-income and special-needs students. It has been reported that the new formula will result in an additional $230 million in public school education within the state. But opposers of the plan said inflation concerns set the fear of the Legislature not being able to fully fund the program, as was the case with MAEP.
In 2024, the county school district requested about $7.7 million dollars to be obtained through ad valorem taxes. Now, with the new formula and shortfall, that ad valorem tax request has increased to $8,758,191.
Dalton said because of the new formula, the line item for new programs is “the amount of the increase in local contribution over the prior year that shall be requested outside of the 4-7 percent limitation.” That amount is listed at $860,000.
“We can ask for this ($860,000) and the four percent,” Dalton said. “But we did not ask for the four percent. We only asked what was given to us from the 2024 session by the Legislature.”
Statewide, the new formula results in over $114 million in local contributions from school districts all over the state. Only ten districts saw a decrease in local contributions. But does the state’s new formula come at the expense of local taxpayers?
Based on the 2025 local contribution for Yazoo County, the required contribution under MAEP was $2,205,971. Under the new MSFF formula, local contribution increases by $860,000 to a total of $3,066,393.
Locally, the Yazoo City Municipal Schools saw a $16,272 increase in local contribution.
Dalton said the district “would be held harmless” until 2028.
“That means we are going to get the same amount of funding until 2028 that we got under MAEP,” Dalton said. “In 2028, if my calculations are correct, we would lose close to $1 million dollars of state funding. This is essentially how we will be fully funded under the new funding formula. In our board meeting, I conveyed to everybody that you look to a community driven by jobs. And the last thing we want to do is get rid of jobs because we don’t ask for enough money, and we get our knees cut out from under us. I don’t want to lose jobs. What should be viewed as an investment is looking more like a burden.”
Superintendent Dr. Ken Barron said if the district didn’t make the request under the new formula, the district would be forced to cut positions, along with services and programs that the district currently offers. He added that the county school district is actually “taking a hit” with the new formula.
And Dalton stressed that this year’s request will only happen once.
“We are not going to ask for an increase like this again,” he said. “We are asking for it now. Because this is a new program, we can only ask for it this one year. If we did not ask for this this year, we could never ask for it again.”
Barron said he understands the request raises concerns with taxpayers. But he said looking at his own taxes, he would see an annual increase of about $80 on his $165,000 assessed value.
“For every $100,000 evaluation, you should see no more than $50 of an increase,” Barron said.
Concerning the mills levied for the county school district in the past, the millage rate has remained stagnant at 46.80 mills. Barron said the state average millage rates for county schools is 48.2 mills.
“We have been at that 46.80 mills for a while,” Barron said. “We are so lower than others. Yazoo City is in the mid-50s in mills. Everyone around us is levying more mills than we are. We are just catching up, but we are going to continue to keep things tight.”
Barron and Dalton both appeared before the supervisors during a special meeting last Monday. On top of the new funding formula, Dalton also explained that the school district is considering the $109,873 in shortfall from the county.
“Our request last year was for $ 7.79 million dollars total,” Dalton said. “We received $179,000 less than what we requested and that created the shortfall.”
Supervisor Lee Moore, who said he has been in contact with state lawmakers, questioned whether the district was taking advantage of “a loophole?”
“Even if there is a loophole saying you can ask for this one-time money, surely they (the state) didn’t give the school district a blank check,” Moore said.
“You are basically asking for something we don’t have,” added Supervisor Joseph Thomas Jr.
“We have to ask for that or that money goes away, and we don’t have another chance to ask for that,” Barron said.
Moore said he is “aggravated” with state lawmakers and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors for letting the new formula bill pass.
“They may not have cut our budget, but they are fixing to make us raise taxes to correct (the districts’) budget,” Moore said.
“It’s happening right now,” Dalton replied.
“It shouldn’t have passed, or we should have been better informed,” Moore continued. “I am waiting to see how it is going to play out in the news. Who is going to take the blame? Is the state going to take it or will it be the school districts? Everybody I have talked to in the state is adamant that they didn’t give y’all a shortfall, but y’all are adamant that they did.”
“They (the state) can frame it anyway they want, but these are the numbers,” Dalton said.
Barron said he has talked to 28 superintendents within the state. Of those, eight are asking for the full amount in increase in local contributions; three are asking for partial contributions; and 13 were not asking for anything.
Bruce Templeton, a consultant with the tax assessor’s office, said if the county is projected to raise taxes by 4.53 mills with the school district’s request, a homestead property valued at $100,000 would see about $45.30 increase in taxes. Other property holders, non-homestead, at that same value would see about $67.95. However, Templeton’s estimates do not include the additional millage increase that could come from the county’s side.
“Basically, what is happening is the Legislation changed the funding formula this year,” Templeton said, during Monday’s meeting. “They basically said ‘we are going to change the funding formula, and we are going to shortfall school districts and put it back on the county.’ And that’s exactly what they did.”
“But the state is saying they didn’t,” Moore replied.
Moore reflected on the state’s stance that the new formula will result in an additional $230 million in public school education.
“But what happens after those three years,” Dalton asked.
“You have the PERS increase, and the teacher pay raises…all those things were put into this bill,” Barron added. “And we have got to be able to pay our teachers. We also can’t spend more than 88 percent of our budget. We must have 12 percent of our working budget in reserves for emergencies.”
“I assure you we are not making any money off of this by any stretch,” Dalton said.
