Higher Property Taxes on the Way
Reappraisals Increase Coast Property Values

by Keith Burton - GCN 10/7/08

Higher property taxes are on tap for Coast residents as a result of property reappraisal by county tax assessors. Properties were reassessed in all three Coast counties this year and although many jurisdictions in Jackson County reduced their tax millage rate, most in Harrison and Hancock did not. The increases in property values means what you pay cities, counties and schools will be more than in the past.

Most properties have risen in value an average of 15 percent, according to county officials. Property improvement values increased about 7 percent.  Overall land values are also higher, especially in the northern areas where many Coast residents migrated after the storm.

What all this means is that many Coast residents will be paying higher property taxes come January and what you pay for car tags will also increase.

State law requires counties to reassess property every four years. There has been expectation that property values, even where there had been loss of homes in Katrina-striken areas would increase and that is the case. In Harrison County, there is an across-the-board average 15 percent increase in home values. To offset some of the increase in values, Harrison County slightly dropped there millage rate from 44.35 to 43.65, less than one mil.

In Biloxi, a recent controversy that developed between the city council and Mayor A.J. Holloway over  a pay increase of city workers largely concealed that fact that the city failed to reduce its millage rate as a result of the property value increases.

During a time when many residents are still finding ways to recover and deal with the changes wrought be Katrina, the increase in property taxes will only make that effort more difficult.