By Billy Davis

An increase in property taxes, which may have jolted some homeowners this year, was caused in part when Panola County moved away from assessing multi-acre homes on a single acre.

Panola County, for the first time, has updated its tax assessment of multi-acre homes to include three acres of property.

“What is happening is we’re trying to get away from the one-acre assessment,” said Bill Bryant, the contracted assessor who is employed by Panola and neighboring counties.

Under Mississippi tax law, a home with multiple acres can be assessed with as little as a one-acre tract attached to the home.  That allowance matters to taxpayers, since the acreage attached to the home is assessed in thousands of dollars – $4,000 an acre in much of Panola County.

The attached acreage that is not included with the home, meanwhile, known as “ag acres,” is valued in the hundreds of dollars.

Mississippi tax law allows counties to consider up to 20 acres of land as homestead property.  

Bryant said neighboring counties Tate, Tunica and Marshall assess up to three acres of homestead property. DeSoto County assesses the maximum, 20 acres.

Bryant confirmed that Panola County is allowed to maintain its one-acre assessment. But if the county keeps assessing homes on one-acre lots, it will fall farther behind the true market value of property, he said.

The state Tax Commission, tasked with enforcing state law, requires that property assessments fall within 85 percent of the market value.

“It’s true that the tax assessor has the final say,” Bryant said. “But by law he also has to follow what land is selling for.”

“Even with the move to three acres, we’re still 15 percent to 20 percent below the true market value,” Bryant added.  

Bryant said David Garner, the county’s tax assessor/collector, approved the move to three-acre homestead assessments.

“David approved it, reluctantly, because it had to be done,” Bryant said.

Garner was not available for comment for this story.

If a Panola County home sits on at least three acres, the updated assessment could reflect an $8,000 increase in land value, an $80 jump in property taxes. That increase means many homeowners were hit twice – first from a jump in their home’s value and also with the $80 increase for the additional two acres.

Property taxes also reflected a five-mill increase approved by county supervisors in 2008.

Bryant acknowledged that taxpayers have flooded Garner’s office with phone calls and questions.

“I’ve sat down with a lot of unhappy taxpayers to explain why this was necessary,” Bryant said. “Once we explain it to them, that this is something that had to be done, most of them understand.”

If the public is unhappy with the tax increases, that distress hasn’t reached the Board of Supervisors, said board president Gary Thompson.

“Except for maybe a comment at the courthouse, I have not had a phone call – not a one,” he said.

County tax records show Thompson’s 2009 property taxes, on a one-acre home south of Batesville, increased $93 from 2008. He owed $751 in taxes.

The 2009 property taxes on David Garner’s 1.2-acre home increased by $209. His home, taxed at $1,779 for 2009, is located in Batesville.  

Bryant said Garner’s updated tax assessment boosted the home’s assessed land value from $20,000 to $25,000.