County, schools to increase taxes

Pike commissioners discussed rolling back the county’s millage rate from 11.98 to 9.6 at the Wednesday, Oct. 11 meeting. The millage rate will be officially set at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9 in the board of commissioners’ conference room. According to the five-year tax digest and history ad on page 2A, the net tax increase for 2023 was 11.92%, compared to 11.72% in 2022, 2.17% in 2021 and 6.27% in 2020. See more details on the ad on page 2A, including countywide real and personal property taxes, the gross digest, the net M&O millage rate and the total M&O taxes levied for the past five years.

The Pike County board of education will hold public hearings on a tax increase Nov. 1 at 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. as well as Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. The meetings will be held at the Ninth Grade Academy and a meeting to vote on the tax increase will be held at 10:15 a.m. The tax digest and tax levy history ad on page 2B shows that this year’s net tax percent increase will be 21.24% compared to 5.5% in 2022, 2.3% in 2021, 13.2% in 2020 and 1.1% in 2019.

“This tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 14.00 mills, a decrease of 1.74 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 12.559 mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $150,000 is approximately $86 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $200,000 is approximately $115,” says the notice of property tax increase ad on page 2B.

This yea,r the Pike County school district will receive around $2.6 million from the state through the Equalization Grant through Quality Basic Education school funding.

“The QBE funding law requires a minimum millage rate or equivalent millage rate of 14 mills to qualify for equalization funding. Given these facts and in an effort to preserve equalization funding from the state, the Pike County board of education is proposing to reduce the millage rate to 14 mills. This rate is 11.47% over the rollback rate and a decrease of 1.74 mills in the current millage rate. While increased property values will result in increased taxes, this proposed rate will likely result in a reduction of taxes estimated on the most recent notices received by property owners.”