Kitchens: Costs Are Rising: Does the Government Need More of Your Money?
Note: The following op-ed article is provided by Hernando Ward 5 Alderman Kit Kitchens. Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of this publication.
By Kit Kitchens, Hernando Ward 5 Alderman
Like families and businesses, the government was not exempt from the inflationary spiral of the last four years. Asphalt for paving roads has increased 25 percent, vehicles 27 percent and labor has increased at about 15 percent-20 percent. In a culture where the size of government on every level continues to grow and where cuts are rarely tolerated, you would, unfortunately, expect some government officials in DeSoto County to want a property tax increase.
If you own real estate in a city in DeSoto County, your real property is taxed by three entities: the county, the school system, and your city. If you are in the county, the last one does not apply to you. These entities control how much you pay them in taxes through a rate called a mil. This rate equates to $1 for every $1,000 of the assessed value of your home. Thankfully, as one of the most conservative counties in the state, there has never been much of a public appetite for millage increases, which has kept politicians who want to increase your taxes at bay. That is, until a few months ago when the Mississippi Department of Revenue informed our Tax Assessors office that they would have to increase the assessed value of almost all real estate in the county. Assessed value is basically what the local government says your house is worth for tax purposes. Because the actual value of real estate has increased so markedly over the last few years, most people have an assessed value between 50-60 percent of their home’s market value. The state is now requiring that they be brought within 85 percent of market value. This equates to a huge increase.
Luckily, the county and cities cannot collect more than 10 percent in property taxes in one year than they did in the previous year, so they will all adjust their tax rate down to some extent. The schools, however, have discovered a loophole in the new funding formula that allows them to keep as much of the increase as they want. Most property owners are facing a very substantial tax increase unless the various governing boards act to reduce their millage.
So why shouldn’t they keep all that tax revenue? They need it, right? Their costs have gone up. Why shouldn’t they be able to increase their revenue to keep up? The answer is simple. People just don’t have the money.
People in our county have seen the prices of everything including food, vehicles, clothing, and daily necessities increase dramatically. In response, real people have done what the government never does, they went without. They eat out less, buy fewer luxuries and invent ways to stretch a dollar as far as it will go. People have adjusted their lives in line with the new reality. Our governing bodies should do the same.
If the government is short on cash, the knee jerk reaction should not be to take more from the citizens. Instead, it should start by tightening its belt. The government is the only institution that can base the amount of revenue it collects based on what it perceives as its needs, rather than by its outputs. It has the power to demand revenue from its citizens. But the mandate for more money does not make those dollars exist. And when inflation has brought people to the end of their rope, every dime the county, schools and cities extract will be taken directly in the form of a reduction in their citizens’ standard of living.
County, school, and municipal boards should do everything they can to ensure that the people under their jurisdiction do not see a rise in their property tax bill this year. As an Alderman in Hernando, I plan to fight to keep the city portion of Hernandoan’s tax bill flat with the previous year. But the city is only one of three entities on the tax bill. It is my hope that, not only will my fellow aldermen see this issue in the same way, but that the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors and especially the DeSoto County School Board will do the same.
Kit Kitchens is Ward 5 Alderman in Hernando.
