Some Commerce residents who had not been paying attention to their city council and school board got a surprise in the mail last week.
The office of Jackson County tax commissioner Don Elrod mailed out tax bills. By Monday morning, upset Commerce residents were calling him to complain.
Both the city council and the city school board had advertised the increases in their tax rates. The city also advertised and held three public hearings — but no one attended any of them.
Elrod does not set tax rates nor budgets for any government office. His job is to prepare and mail the bills and collect the money on behalf of Jackson County, its school system, and the other municipalities — including Commerce and its school system.
“I answered five calls myself,” said Elrod Monday morning. “I don’t know how many the girls answered. They (callers) were extremely upset. They asked ‘how can they justify going up in this economy?’”
Three factors led to the higher bills in Commerce. First, the city raised its tax rate 1.71 mills due in large part to its reduced receipts from the local option sales tax. Second, the Commerce School System increased its rate by 1.25 mills to cover
increased costs sent down to it by the State Department of Education. Finally, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners raised the tax levy on incorporated areas of the county by .29 mills. All together, those hikes amounted to 3.05 mills.
All of that comes in on one bill. Up until recent years, the city and Jackson County sent separate bills, but Commerce found it less costly to contract Elrod’s office to prepare and mail the bills and collect the revenue. The school system followed suit.
For a taxpayer whose property was valued at $150,000 and assessed at $60,000 (40 percent of fair market value), that three-mill increase works out to a $183 tax hike — less any homestead exemption.
The bills were mailed last Thursday. Most people had them by Saturday, Elrod said.
“But if you were a new purchaser this year, the bill went to the previous owner. You should call us, and we’ll send you a bill,” he stated.
Callers from Commerce were also irritated, Elrod said, by the fact that the dollar amount on the tax bill differed from the dollar amount on the assessment notice. Elrod said he pointed out that the amount of taxes on the assessment notice is an estimate based on the previous year’s tax rate — as is clearly stated on the assessment notices.
“Some people just don’t read the whole thing,” he observed.
Payments are due by Jan. 20.
