Starkville and Oktibbeha County residents living in the former Starkville School District’s extended territory will see a slight reduction in their overall tax bill thanks to a school debt-sharing bill passed by state lawmakers this term.
Information provided by the Oktibbeha County tax assessor’s office shows those residents’ combined county government and school taxes — and Starkville millage, where applicable — will drop .54 mills beginning Oct. 1, the start of Fiscal Year 2015-2016, compared to the current tax rate.
Residents of the former Oktibbeha County School District, however, saw their school taxes increase 7.11 mills, from OCSD’s FY 2014-2015 rate of 58.92 mills to SOCSD’s 66.03 mill levy for the academic year, when the countywide school district approved its budget earlier this summer.
On a $100,000 house, that’s a $71.10 increase for an annual bill without factoring in homestead exemption.
School taxes were the only rates to move as Oktibbeha County (52.96 mills), Starkville (21.98 mills), Sturgis (42 mills) and Maben (44.4 mills) did not increase their respective taxing rates for governmental services.
Comparatively, residents of the three cities pay more in taxes than those in the outlying county because of additional city taxes. For example 118.99 combined government and school mills are levied against a resident living in an unincorporated area next fiscal year. A Starkville homeowner takes that same rate, subtracts the 2.42-mill volunteer county fire tax and adds back the city’s overall 21.98-mill levy to figure out his or her total tax levy of 138.55.
The owner of a $100,000 home in Oktibbeha County’s unincorporated area would pay $1,189.99 in combined taxes for the year, according to information provided by the tax assessor’s office. That bill jumps to $1,385.50 if the same home was located in Starkville. Neither of those figures factor in homestead exemption.
Only residents of Maben (160.97 mills) and Sturgis (151.46 mills) have higher levies, and that’s because a single tax mill does bring in the same amount of money there as it does in Starkville.
The Oktibbeha County supervisors and aldermen of Starkville, Maben and Sturgis set millage rates.
As signed by Gov. Phil Bryant this spring, HB 572 created SOCSD’s countywide taxing district and forced taxpayers to equally split the debt accrued by SSD and OCSD.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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