Desoto expects increase in property value

Supervisors optimistic after preliminary report shows gain

DeSoto County supervisors are upbeat headed into the budget season after a preliminary report from Tax Assessor Parker Pickle showing an uptick of nearly 1 percent over last year in assessed values on real and personal property.

“I’m very excited,” said Supervisor Lee Caldwell of Nesbit. “I was expecting at least level figures, not an increase. This indicates to me that we’re continuing to head out of the downturn in the economy.”

In other action at Monday’s meeting in Hernando, the supervisors plowed ahead on a 30year deal in which the DeSoto Regional Utility Board will repay startup funds, and the supervisors reversed their action on closing county offices on Friday.

Pickle listed total as- sessed value i n 2013 at $ 1 , 619,492, 500, a $15,796,728 increase — 0.98 percent — over the $1,603,722,772 of 2012. Assessed values are the basis for tax rates and the bulk of revenue to fund county operations and schools. Last year, with revenues still flat, county department chiefs had to trim budget requests 5 percent across the board for a lean, $104 million blue- print. Supervisors hope for no cuts in the 2014 fiscal budget that must be OK’d by Sept. 15. The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

“What we’re hoping this next year is to increase services and not increase spending,” Caldwell said.

DeSoto County is the third-largest tax jurisdiction in the state, following

Hinds and Harrison counties.

The 2013 assessed values for “full county taxes” in Pickle’s July recap are: real property, $ 1 , 078,459,700; persona l proper t y, $202,100,604; public utilities, $36,688,267; mobile homes, $997,410; and automobiles, $233,607,371, for $1, 541,853,352 in all. For “school tax only,” real property assessed value is $47,347,106 and on personal property, $30,202,042, for a $77,639,148 total in that category.

“We almost made a full 1 percent increase, which is pretty good with a county our size,” Pickle said of the concluded reappraisal year. “The figures are definitely headed up, as far as showing an economic upturn.”

The tax assessor noted that county coffers will show more gains shortly when just-received fee in lieu values from McKesson Pharmaceutical Co., which recently moved two of six Memphis facilities to DeSoto County, are factored:

“It looks like about $ 685,000, of which the schools will get a share, but it should put us at a full 1 percent increase when final figures come back in August.”

Starting on Oct. 1, 2014, the DeSoto Regional Utility Authority will pay the county $10,834 monthly to repay $ 3.9 million in “incubator” funds that helped get wastewater t reatment operations launched a decade ago.

“It was understood back then that they’d start repaying us after about 10 years,” said County Administrator Vanessa Lynchard. “Bill Austin doesn’t have a short memory,” she said of DCRUA’s executive director.

The authority was formed in 1999 and since has grown a $100 millionplus network of plants, pipelines and pump stations.

Medlin asked about some $7 million loaned to the Convention and Visitors Bureau that helped build the Landers Center in Southaven. Lynchard said a formal payment plan has yet to be worked out, and she’ll discuss that with the CVB board and chairman Charles Tackett at their July meeting.

Also Monday, with little debate, the supervisors rescinded an unpopular decision last month to keep county offices open on Friday and voted 4-1 to go with the state’s other 81 counties and give employees the day off, for a four- day Fourth of July weekend.

The move last month to keep offices open was no hit with workers; county officials cited the need to keep public services available, especially car tags. But the car tag rationale ran out of gas when the state Revenue Department, whose computers provide necessary links, said it would not be providing even minimal staff on Friday in Jackson since DeSoto was the only county that said it would be open.

“It was just one of those things that materialized,” said Gardner. “But we’re happy with the decision to close Friday and hope our employees enjoy their holiday weekend.”