MERIDIAN —
Lauderdale County is expected to make their FY2011 tax increase official today.
The county board of supervisors will meet at 10 a.m. in the Raymond P. Davis county annex building on 21st Street to pass their budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, and to set the property tax rate for the year.
The board is expected to raise taxes by 1.86 mills county-wide and 3.95 mills inside the city limits. In FY2010, the county cut taxes by 2.41 mills county-wide and 3.78 mills in the city.
The proposed FY2011 budget expenditures are project to be cut by $2.1 million, from $46.7 million in FY2010 to $44.6 million in FY2011. Property tax revenues are projected to be down by about half a million dollars.
Overall, the proposed budget is cut by about 4 percent over FY2010.
County Administrator Joe McCraney said there are several reasons the county will have to cut spending and raise taxes.
He said property values in the county have gone down, meaning that property tax revenue will go down with it, by just over $500,000. He said there are also new expenses that the county did not have in previous years, including improvements to the juvenile detention facility and payments on the Loblolly industrial bond, that amount to about $800,000.
On top of that, McCraney said FY2010 left the county with no cash reserves to carry them into FY2011. This was the result of a combination of factors, which include the 2010 tax cuts, state budget problems that trickled down the county, and $2 million negative cash balances on county accounts, which the state auditor's office required the county to bring into the positive.
McCraney said that, even with the cuts and tax increase, the FY2011 budget will be tight and will require careful monitoring. The total projected budget that the county is expected to vote on today is $50.7 million, with expenditures projected at $46.7 million.
Local News
County to vote on budget, tax rate
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Morning update for Wednesday, May 30, 2012
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