It might have only been a $5 spreadsheet error, but it ended up being a five-mill error in Yazoo County’s finances.
Yazoo County is collecting five mills over what it should be due to an incorrect entry from the county tax collector’s office.
“This is a big problem,” said Supervisor Willie Wright, during a recent Board of Supervisors meeting.
Miranda Alexander, county tax collector, shared the error with county leaders during a recent board meeting. An incorrect entry of $4.91 was caught by Travis Crimm, the county’s former tax collector who assists Alexander in her office.
“This is big,” Crimm said. “I just so happened to be going over this last week, and I caught it.”
Alexander said she incorrectly inputted a $4.91 entry in her system. That error completely shifted the millage figures for Yazoo County.
“There was an oversight on my end,” Alexander said. “I wasn’t aware that I made an entry of $4.91. That line is still in there. I was confused, my mistake. Travis just caught it as we were doing some assessments last week.”
When the error was brought to the attention of Chancery Clerk April Adams-Jones, she was obligated to reach out to an auditor for a recommendation.
“I had to call the auditor to see what they recommended,” Adams-Jones said. “It was not just a $4.91 problem. It is making it seem like it was a $5 problem. But it is a big problem.”
The error means that Yazoo County collected 4.91 mills more than it should have.
“It’s five mills, not $5,” Adams-Jones said. “It’s a big problem.”
Based on an auditor’s recommendation, Yazoo County will need to create a separate fund to hold the extra funds to offset the upcoming fiscal year. Technically, that means taxpayers will see a decrease in taxes to offset the additional funds collected in error. But taxes will increase afterwards to return to the correct millage.
“You will have to go through and figure exactly to the penny what was collected,” explained Adams-Jones. “That has to be put in a separate fund that is kept. When you go into this year and do your tax levies and millage rate, you are going to have to do the adjustments to adjust what you have already collected. We can’t apply that because it has really already been collected.”
Adams-Jones said she was advised that the county cannot provide refunds or credit for the additional mills collected from the tax collector’s error. The additional funds must be used to offset the figures before returning back to the original amount.
“You will have to hold those additional funds until you get ready to do levies,” Adams-Jones said. “Then you adjust the millage down. Then you go back to the regular millage. But, yes, you will have to lower it to offset it.”
“We are going to have to finish the collection for this year then not have the 4.91 mills for next year,” Crimm added. “But, also, you won’t have the true figures until after the tax sales.”
Just moments before Alexander’s revelation, the county board was told Yazoo County is cutting it close with its finances.
“We’ve just got told we are in bad shape, and now we learn we actually collected five more mills than we should have,” asked Supervisor Lee Moore.
