Hattiesburg property owners who didn’t pay their taxes this year – or were late paying them – are to blame for a 2 mill increase approved by the city council Tuesday evening.
Mayor Toby Barker said there’s no question that the fault lay with those delinquent property owners – and added that it could have been much worse if not for the “fiscal maturity” shown in recent months by the Hattiesburg School District.
“The bottom line is that the school district ended up being short more than $900,000 this year,” Barker explained. “But because (the district) has managed its financial house during the course of the past 18 months, they were able to absorb that shortfall this year. They didn’t come asking for more money to get that $900,000 back even though they had every right to do so.”
However, Barker explained, the school district is not in a financial situation to handle absorbing that kind of shortfall two years in a row.
“What we hope is that these 2 mills will help them meet the amount they asked for and knowing that collections will likely be higher, we think the school maintenance millage will lower again next year maybe by half the amount of this increase.”
Barker also pointed out that the school millage rate is still lower than it was two years ago.
The increase means a Hattiesburg resident with a $100,000 home can expect to pay about $20 more next year on their property taxes.
In his budget presentation to the council, Barker explained that the city has not passed a balanced budget since 2011.
Since then, budget deficits have ranged from $413,000 in 2012 to as much as $3.6 million in 2016.
“The current year’s deficit stands at $3.47 million,” said Barker. “Simply put, it’s a bad way of running government and that practice has to stop immediately and it must and will start with this budget.”
Making up a deficit of more than $3 million won’t happen in a single budget year, he said.
“Or even in two or three budget years. Moving us back to a balanced budget will take several consecutive years of fiscal discipline. It will involve restraint, planning and a few hard choices.”
Among those, Barker said, is a decision to all but eliminate new spending to enhance the city’s parks system beginning with the next fiscal year.
“This is why we, at some point, will put forward a 1-cent increase in the hotel/restaurant tax to you the residents; because this is likely our only path forward for further investment in our parks system.”
See next week’s issue of The PineBelt NEWS for more on the city’s 2019 budget.
