Senate bill would cut property taxes for more industries

[TexasTowelie]

JACKSON (AP) – Mississippi senators want more industrial projects to qualify for property tax breaks.

Senate Bill 2939, which passed the Mississippi Senate on Tuesday, lowers the threshold to qualify for a fee in lieu of taxes from $100 million to $60 million.

Under such an arrangement, the Mississippi Development Authority negotiates a tax rate as low as one-third of normal taxes, for up to 10 years. The breaks had been reserved for very expensive developments.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Joey Fillingane, a Sumrall Republican, says lawmakers should lower the cap, but isn’t sure of the right level. The bill originally set a $25 million threshold, but Fillingane says that’s too low.

Read more: http://djournal.com/news/senate-bill-cut-property-taxes-industries/

[Doreen]

1. Of course my first queation is, does this mean property tax on

the average home owner goes up?

[TexasTowelie]

2. I suspect that industries of this size

are located in areas that are less desirable to live which also means that they are more likely to have a higher density of minorities. It will probably have a significant impact on school district taxes which do not have as broad of a tax base as city and county taxes so in effect the bill is discriminatory, but not evident. By further erosion of the tax base at that level it will have a negative impact on the remaining property owners in that area and also on the students. It would be interesting for someone with access to the data to do some number crunching to test that hypothesis.