The value of Leflore County property for tax purposes is up about 20 percent over the last appraisals, according to the new tax rolls.
Tax Assessor Leroy Ware submitted the real and personal property rolls to the county Board of Supervisors Monday night for their review. The supervisors also voted to allow Ware to take complaints until the end of July.
Chancery Clerk Sam Abraham said the tax rate probably would be lower this year, assuming no large adjustments are made in the values. However, he couldn't say how much. He also predicted that the bills for vehicle tags would be lower.
Ware reported that the total value of the county's property was $189.4 million - about $31.6 million, or 20 percent, over last year's figure.
State law now requires that reappraisals be done every four years. An appraisal of Leflore County property, the county's first in 15 years, was completed last year. However, the implementation of the new values was delayed out of a concern that property owners wouldn't have enough time to voice objections.
For last year's taxes, the 1985 values were adjusted only for building additions or anything else other than a change in property value.
The value of real property was up 30 percent this year, but the figures for personal property, automobiles and mobile homes did not rise as much, he said.
Ware said recently that North Greenwood property values had increased the most. Some property in South Greenwood rose only 5 to 10 percent, and some downtown property figures fell, he said.
In June, Ware's office held informal hearings in which taxpayers could discuss their property values. The assessor's office reviewed the properties in question and adjusted values where necessary.
Ware's office will continue handling complaints until July 31. Anyone who still objects to a value may file a written complaint with Abraham's office by Aug. 6 so the supervisors can discuss it. If the board rejects a protest, the property owner may file suit in chancery court.
Also at Monday's meeting, the board voted to close out a road sealing project despite Supervisor Arvel Burden's request to add a stretch of road to it.
The vote was 4-1, with only Burden voting no.
The sealing project, now more than a year old, is being wrapped up, said County Engineer Jack Willis. The cost initially was budgeted at $1.3 million but ended up at $1.6 million because some extra work was needed around catfish ponds in Districts 1 and 3.
Burden, who represents District 5, had asked Willis to add two miles of County Road 364 to the project.The two miles in question run from County Road 511 to the Phillipston Loop.
Burden said that while riding the roads with Willis and the state-aid engineer, he was told that that stretch of state-aid road would be part of the project. He later told some residents of his district that this would be done. However, 364 did not end up on the list of roads and therefore wasn't sealed.
Willis said he didn't recall telling Burden that 364 would be included, but he said he could still add that road through a change order. However, any work done now would have to start quickly, he said.
Board President Robert Moore said there would be problems if the work on 364 were added to the project this late. He suggested doing the project next year, possibly with help from a bond issue.
