Latest / Between the Headlines: Columbus / Lowndes County is Booming. So Why Are Taxes Going Up?

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Lowndes County is Booming. So Why Are Taxes Going Up? · Between the Headlines: Columbus

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Between the Headlines.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: One of our hosts of Between the Headlines is the managing editor of our newsroom.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Typically we try to keep news and opinions separate, but reporters have a unique insight into the workings of local government and their analysis can be helpful for readers and listeners.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: The dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity and our reporting will always reflect that.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: And now, Between the Headlines, your internet sales tax dollars at work as the municipal complex gets a new lid to the tune of $750,000.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: And cops on buses.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Was that on your bingo card?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: If you live in the city, stamp that box and the cows of Clay County are in great peril.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Who shall save them?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: And special guest, Mr Greg Andrews is here today.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: But first, Retirement looks different for everyone, so your plan should be built around you.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: For over 40 years, Financial Concepts has helped people create retirement strategies that fit their lives.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Financial Concepts has helped people create retirement strategies that fit their lives.
• 1:25
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• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Wherever you are in your journey, we're ready to help.
• 1:37
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• 1:39
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  Speaker 3: Call Benton's at 662-657-2583 or visit them online at bentonsinccom.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: That is bentonsinccom.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: This episode of Between the Headlines is brought to you by Bank First, the locally owned bank that makes decisions right here at home, by people who understand the needs of our community.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: That means local decisions, local support and folks who care.
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• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Bankfirst is a member FDIC and equal housing lender bank in MLS 454063.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: You are listening to Between the Headlines with the world champion, Cal Tipper and managing editor of the dispatch, Mr Zach Blair, and my name is David Chisholm, no cars included.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: So, Zach, we're in here today.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: It is 43 days until Halloween, 98 days until Christmas and 103 days until Mayor Jones finishes that amphitheater pursuant to his campaign promise.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a song you like to play a lot, david.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about another thing.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I heard from a reader about some songs that you might have been playing in your past.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I heard from I say reader, I guess reader and listener too.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: A listener to the podcast reached out to me I won't say names and told me that you are a little bit of an accomplished pianist.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: If you put enough quarters in the box, I might could crank out a tune or two Are we talking about ELO keyboards?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Are we talking about, like Beethoven, mozart?
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I'm a fan of the pipe organ dude.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, the pipe organ, yeah, pulling out stops and like I would wear a cape if you needed me to Like I'm all in for that stuff.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: I'm going to need to see this.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll happen.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Maybe an on-site special edition of Between the Headlines?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: All right, no promises.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: So the first headline today we are looking at a $1 million internet sales tax appropriation by the city council, $750,000 of which is to re-roof the municipal complex.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: What's a the?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Well, to give full context to this, when the legislation first came through for the internet use tax for cities and counties, it was earmarked specifically, very narrowly, for roads and bridges.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: The legislation broadened in 2025 to include building assets, for public building assets.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: So cities and counties have buildings that they want to build, renovate, tear down.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Build.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: You say Whatever, so it could be a capital increase of they could.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: They could build a new city hall.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: So building assets is is what the legislation allows, and so now it's roads, bridges, building assets uh, for the public.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Tuesday and this is something that's been brewing for quite some time they decided to um split the baby, if you will, with what they've banked in sales tax or in internet use tax, which is collected from internet sales, and what they intend to get in January.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: And they usually get two dumps a year, one in January, one in July.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: So it averages about $1.3 million.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Gotcha A big down payment and then, when the rest of the money comes in, we finish.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: They had some banked from past drops.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, and between what they have banked and between what is coming in January, it's that they don't already have committed.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: It's about $3.6-ish million that they don't already have committed.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: It's about $3.6-ish million.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: After much debate Tuesday they decided to give a million of that to an admittedly much-needed roof on the municipal complex and the strip mall over there and a couple of other things.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to tear down part of the dial-a-bus building and put a roof over the other part and then they're going to renovate the city shop over there at Public Works Gotcha.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: But the big ticket item the $750 for that Is that roof.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, now the rest of it is going to go into paving in some manner or another, so they're still going to be using some of this money for paving.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I understand both arguments here.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: The one from you know Jason Spears was very adamant about stay the course.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Stay the course, keep this money for paving.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: This is supposed to be paving money.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Let's find another way for these other projects that doesn't dip into or create mission creep for this fund.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Rusty Green kind of took the middle ground where he says you know, I agree with you Jason in any other case, but these needs are so urgent.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Water in the building is a problem.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, water in the building, and Ethel Stewart made a fantastic point that Jamie Garrett, the chief operations officer, really punctuated.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Well, there's millions of dollars of equipment in these buildings that are leaking.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: The crime lab alone that's in the strip mall, that's where the roof is leaking has $4 million of equipment in it.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: The police department, you know, has equipment.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Other offices that are over there have equipment and you know that equipment is worth something and biting the bullet to fix those roofs in some way.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: You've got to fix it.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: But the mission creep argument I understand from Jason's perspective and from Rusty's perspective and really Stephen even said you know it's not our intention to do this more than once, but once you do it, once you've got a precedent, that's out of the box Slippery slope.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, preacher's not happy with that stuff.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Look, here's my problem with it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: $750,000 is an eerily round number.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's estimates, man.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: They haven't bid that out yet.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Well, I hope they bid it.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Well, and I hope that they bid it out to Lowndes County Jail.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Can we get some jailers up there to you know?
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Patch the roof, not just patch it.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Lay the neoprene out you talking about the jailers or the inmates?
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: The inmates, oh okay.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Maybe the jailers are up there.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: You know, Might want some extra money I don't think well, they're only asking three beers a piece for each of their co-workers.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, right, all right well, here's the deal the the internet use tax.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: When it was when it was brought in.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: It was brought in for paving um, that came in at a time where cities and counties, including the city of Columbus, were going into debt to pay for roads.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: You might recall city is sitting somewhere between $25-30 million in debt total.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: More than half of that are street bonds that go all the way back to 2010.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Columbus has been paying those bonds off a little at a time.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Some of those streets are eligible to be fixed again with money that has, and the debt on the first time hasn't even been paid off yet.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: So they stopped doing that because the internet use tax allowed the two.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Lowndes County still does issue road bonds, but they cordon off their use tax money to service that debt.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: That should be the mission of any city or county.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: That should continue to be the mission of any city or county normally to keep this there because you don't want to end up having to because you fix this building, built that thing, built that thing.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Now we've got to borrow money Now.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: We've got to borrow money that we've got to pay out of our general fund again, out of our regular ad valorem or regular sales tax again, because we've already spent this use tax money and there's going to be cities and counties in Mississippi that use this use tax money now in ways that render it essentially ineffective.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: It's going to be pet projects.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's going to be this, it's going to be that.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: There's always going to be a need that crops Boy.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Well, we've got this money and they'll do it.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Columbus does not need to be one of those places.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Jason was blowing that warning.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Taking a hard line Tuesday, Rusty was saying I can see why we're doing what we're doing this time, but I don't want to make it a habit.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But how do you keep from making it a habit once you do it the first time?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: I don't think you can.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I think I hate to.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that that's the, that's the test for Columbus.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: Well, and I hate to pick sides, one Republican over another but I think I've got a side with Jason here because I mean I mean something might come up, jason here, because I mean I mean something might come up.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: There might be a giant sinkhole behind Taco Bell that sucks in a few cars and it's like this is an emergency thing, we've got to fix this, and that's a lot of asphalt, and so how do you get ahead on that?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: How do you rise up to the point that you're not insolvent when these little emergency situations like a leaking roof come in?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Right, you, just you can't be.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: You've got to have impulse control with it.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And this, the municipal complex strip mall, just let's take that.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: That's been a problem for a very long time.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: There hasn't been another mechanism that has availed itself to bite that off Right and so okay.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: So let's give them the mulligan here, and I can see again Rusty's point in doing that, because he was a swing vote with that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: That kicked it to Stephen, and Stephen says we're going to use this for roads moving forward.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I think a good faith proof of that is that they are spending $150,000 of this money to get a road assessment, a street assessment, where they're going to know what the condition of all their streets are and they're going to be able to create a data-driven plan.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And you know Stephen is very adamant.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: That plan is what we're going to base on, at least for the rest of this term, our use tax spending on, and that is a good idea.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Even with this roof now, I don't see that as a bad idea in and of itself as long as the other happens.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: But you know this council may hold the line.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: What about the next one?
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: What about the next one?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I feel like I would feel very differently about this if it was the last council than I do right now.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: What about that dial-a-bus building?
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: I've seen pictures of it.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: It looks awful.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: I see it's in East Columbus.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, would it be okay just to let vines grow over it and kick that can down the road?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it's very difficult.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I think it would make the city look quite hypocritical if they're coding other people on their private property and they're letting vines grow on their own.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is true, we'll see what becomes of that.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Own.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is true, we'll see what becomes of that.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: So now, zach, in the year 2025, we are hearing of cops on school buses.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: This is wild dude.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Do we really need this?
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I mean I don't know, there were police officers occasionally on some of our extracurricular buses when we were going on track meets and beta club trips and different things.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: When I was in high school I didn't think anything of it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: But this is like day-to-day transport to and from school, right?
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And that's a sad testament.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: And it's a sad testament that the reason that they're having to do it is because they're having such.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: They're obviously having a high enough volume of behavioral problems with not only the bus riders, but you know the care.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Angry parents.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I heard one lady was trying to get on the bus.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Man, yeah well, I mean, it happens and I got, I got a brother-in-law that drives a bus in my hometown and, uh, the stories that he'll tell you about being on that bus would would curl even your hair, you can tell.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I've already talked to him about it, but it the problem that I have with this is a real.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I think that this is a good idea and I don't think that it's an overreaction to the problem.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: If you've got to settle your buses down, you got to settle your buses down.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: If you need to show your parents that you're not messing around and that there will be discipline on the buses and they're not going to obstruct that you're there.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Not only is your kid not going to obstruct it, but you're not either, then fine, and it's a way for these guys to make extra money.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't see a problem with it in theory.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: My problems with this pretty simple, and they kind of line up with Dr Shemake and Talisa Young.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's do this, but let's define what their roles are.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Let's get something in writing, a memorandum of understanding, that says this is what these guys are here for, this is what they're going to do.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: These are the parameters of how this role is supposed to shake out.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Here are the safety guidelines and here's the training that you need to show to be eligible to get this.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: You can't just say well, you know, they have a badge, so they're fine.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a can of worms, it is a can of worms.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Hear me when I say I don't think that you're going to have, you know, bad Apple officers that are going to get on that bus and start like suplexing kids and things like that, just because they're out of meanness or whatever.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: I don't think that you're going to have that kind of misbehavior, but they might be ill-trained and their gun might fall out of their holster on the floor Right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I mean and buses are moving and they're close quarters.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: And kids can, especially older kids and bigger kids.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: They can be pretty stupid and there's more of them than there are of you on that bus, and so you're in close quarters.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: There are more of them than there are of you.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: There are lots of things that can happen if you don't have a checklist in your mind, for okay, if eight of them come at me say to get my gun on this bus, this is what I'm supposed to do.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: If you're acting on your own instincts in that moment entirely, and there's no piece of paper that says these are the procedures when this worst case scenario comes to play.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: That's just one of the many reasons that they need that piece of paper.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: They need that proof of training, they need something to say okay, this is what we expect from you guys, this is what y'all can expect from us.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: And here are the requirements you have to meet in order to be hired to ride the bus with these children.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Well, it's tough to stomach.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: I mean the things that you're describing.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I hope that that would be like one in a million scenario.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Well, it is zero.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, zero is definitely better than it.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: I guess what I'm trying to say to you is that it really feels dystopian to have to do this?
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: It does, and I'll tell you riding a school bus builds character, that's true.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: For kids that are softies ride the bus.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, when I was growing up there was a hierarchy the older you were and the more status you had, the further back you got to move on the bus.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: So if you were in the back seat.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: You were like king of the hill and I don't know.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Kids are going to be kids.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I remember when cameras first came on the bus and some prankster who will go unnamed because my bus driver's still alive and listening.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: How do you do, miss Linda?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Somebody put a piece of gum on the camera and everybody's like oh, they probably got to go.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Well, I tell you what she did.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: She pulled over and she stopped in a parking lot and she was like we're going to wait here as long as it takes until we figure out whose gum is up there on that camera.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: So that's simply to say driving a school bus is not for the faint of heart, no, no.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: You have to be a disciplinarian.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And I think that it's unfair to expect the bus driver to be solely responsible for keeping the peace while they're also trying to keep those kids alive.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So you know, a show of force isn't that big of a deal to me, but I do agree with you that it is a shame that it has come to that.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: We are thankful to our bus drivers, also thankful to our sponsors.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Let's hear from a couple of them.
• 18:40
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• 19:00
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• 19:18
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• 19:32
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• 19:35
  Speaker 3: All right, zach, this is the segment that I've been waiting for for a couple of days now to lighten the mood on things.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Well, unless you're of bovine status the cows of Clay County.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, this guy goes out into a field and he runs over a cow and half of another cow with his vehicle, and the report that was written up said that alcohol was involved.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Well that something was involved.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: He was under the influence of something.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, did they even have to put that in the story?
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Were there any doubts that there was a substance involved here?
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that was a little behind the scenes here.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the draft of that story.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the press release.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the draft of that.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the press release.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the draft of the story.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I look at the reporter and I'm like, just trying to think of anything that could possibly explain it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, did this guy know the owner of the cows?
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: And he calls the sheriff.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, they didn't know each other.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: And.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I mean we laugh, but it's not funny.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I mean this guy lost, I mean that's valuable property that that guy lost, but his name Trampas Freeze.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I mean that does kind of sound like the name of a bovine assailant.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going to make fun of the guy's name.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Well, he kind of brought it on himself, though.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, he ran over cows.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Cows are so nice.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I love cows, I like to eat cows, I'm so mystified by the decision-making that would have to go into, I'm going to go in that field and I'm going to drive around.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: For whatever reason Did he accidentally run into the cows?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Did he run them down on purpose?
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: It sounded like you ran them down on purpose.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: One does not accidentally kill a cow.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I've driven through a pasture of cows.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Now I wasn't going too fast, but I've driven through a pasture of cows before they move.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: They move if you give them an opportunity.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I apologize for this one.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Was he driving a taurus per se?
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Oh lord.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, that one made the car caught on fire after they hit them, after he hit the cat, so it might have been there.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: You go um, zach.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: When I was a kid, cow tipping was something that you manually did.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Okay, you went out to the field and you pushed them over.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't know anything about that.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Well, I had cows next door and I will tell you that cow tipping, from my experience, is a myth.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Okay, first, off they're not dumb.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: They see you coming.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, they can hear you.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: And secondly, if there is a bull in the the mix, then cow tipping is perhaps best not attempted right okay, and, and, and my grandpa because they run faster than you do.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: They do yeah and um and you can hear them come.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: And my grandpa knew when I would try to go cow tipping he could smell my feet when I came in the house, right, Right.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: So there's also that my question.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Looking at this story what did they do with the evidence thereafter?
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: You know, that was my question too.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to ask that though.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: Well, I will.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: I mean you think, hey, daddy, why is there a lug nut in my hamburger steak?
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Save the cows.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Today we are pleased to have in the studio Mr Greg Andrews, who is the tax assessor, no longer collector assessor only, and he is here today.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: Glad to have you, sir.
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: And, as I understand it, the tax rolls will be increased by virtue of our assets Is that what we're here to talk about today.
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: That's correct.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: That's correct, good deal.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: One of the things that we definitely want to talk to you about is, you know, the Parkview that planned for Burns Bottom.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: It's been unveiled, at least the early phases of it.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: One of the things they're wanting to do, they're wanting to start with a certain amount of residential lots over there in what used to be a dilapidated area.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Now you and I have looked at those lot values.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: The prices that they're putting on them are $48,000 to $80,000 just for the lot.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Now you and I have looked at the values of those lots through the life of that redevelopment project as it has progressed since 2015.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Some of those lots, if I remember you know, $1,500, $2,000, $3,000, $4,000.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Now I understand two things.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I understand one that improvements are going to bring higher value to those lots, and I also understand that in a free market, something's worth what somebody's willing to pay for it.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: But for you, as a tax assessor who values property, what has to happen for those lots to be worth $48,000 to $80,000?
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, in the city, the city value has been stale since 2018.
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: What I mean by stale since 2018?
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: What I mean by stale is, uh, the.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: The assessed value has been around 220 225 000 per year.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, basically and that's the value.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: That, uh, that, that's the amount of money that one mill will bring into the city.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: That's correct, that's correct.
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: What I see happening is, you know, uh, I think in the paper it was 50, 60, 70, lots that are talking about being built on Some commercial, some residential, Some commercial some residential, maybe even some businesses.
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: I see it injecting a lot of income tax income into the city.
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: And that 220, 225 would raise up a good bit.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: You know you have to assess property as it is currently used, and currently used is Ben, being a derelict property basically.
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: Where the county and the city have put in a soccer complex and that's appealing to the value of the new properties that are coming on.
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: When those properties are fully developed, I don't have a problem with $48,000 to $50,000 a lot on them.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: I was doing some math last night.
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: You bring in 50 or 60 homes and mixed-use property it's going to raise that value dramatically.
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: Used property uh, it's going to raise that value dramatically.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: Um, I figured 60 homes would bring up additional 300 to 400 000 dollars onto the city tax rolls alone, okay, well that doesn't count sales tax that it will produce, because those people are not living there now.
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: They will be living there close to downtown, which is going to produce more sales tax for the downtown area as well.
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: Right, and not just for the downtown area as well.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Right, and not just for the commercial in Burns Bottom, but all around Right the commercial downtown.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: Yes, sir.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Can you think of any challenges that based on where that is what the history of that place is of getting to this place where it's generating?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: That kind of tax rate you know as the property was 10 years ago.
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: I never saw it being coming to fruition like this.
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: You know, I think that the previous developer had a good idea what he was doing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: I think a local developer like we have now is even better, because the general public, the general people around here, would be more likely to purchase property from a local developer.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: So let me make you a little uncomfortable here, maybe asking you something slightly outside of your realm.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: Here there's been some complaint about the potential tax hike on the county side.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: Is there any time frame wherein this could actually make up for it and make it less necessary?
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: These properties that we're talking about in Burns Bottom won't come on to the tax rolls probably until 27 or 28.
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: We added 138 million assessed value to our tax rolls this year.
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: That's over 880 million dollars in true value.
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's more than 39 counties operate on, and you know we added the city.
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: Like I said, the city mill rate value is about $227,000 per mill whereas the county is $892,000 per mill.
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: And they also have the in lieu money from Steel Dynamics and Lone Dynamics.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And just to translate the in lieu money if a business comes in, they invest at least $60 million.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: They can get the county or the city or wherever they locate to agree to allow them to pay a fee of one-third of the taxes that they would pay in lieu of paying that taxes for 10 years.
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: They pay one-third full tax on one-third.
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: They're exempt on two-thirds of the project.
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: But one-third of a billion dollars is a lot of money, and dynamics alone is $2.8 million and that won't even go on to the tax rolls until next year.
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: We're talking about the 26 roll where we've added a million and a half dollars new dollars in lieu money, plus another million and a half in their budget.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Right, and he said potential tax increase.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: This tax increase has been approved for Lowndes County Supervisors approved it this week.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Columbus stayed the same.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Columbus schools stayed the same.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Lowndes County schools went down.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: As you see it, why did the county go up?
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: I think that the in lieu money the way I describe it you have a budget which is meal rate budgets driven by meal rates.
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: You have in lieu money that's not budgeted, it's not encumbered money.
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: They can spend that money anywhere they want to spend it.
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: I think that they have taken some of that in lieu money and put it in their budget to maybe fund the road department, which needs to be funded, and the sheriff's department needs to be funded.
• 29:45
  Speaker 6: But I think they got caught up also with economic development and having to use that.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: We had $25 million more in debt for economic development.
• 29:55
  Speaker 6: Had to fund the economic development which is.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: Are we talking about the acquisition of the Cinco land?
• 30:02
  Speaker 6: Yes, okay, and the development, acquisition of the cinco land, yes, okay, and the development and development.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Yes is that a cycle that just continues, or does the county ever get to the point, or the city ever get to the point?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: To where and I think this is just asking david's question another way uh, to where?
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, we've got what we need.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: We can actually start bringing these tax rates down.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Do you ever see that happening, or do you ever see that being something that can?
• 30:31
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, I'm sitting as a tax assessor assessing property.
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: Like I said, we have added $138 million assessed value to the tax rolls this year.
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: We already know that we're going to add $415 million assessed to the tax rolls next year.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: That $415 million will add about $8.4 million more to their in lieu.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: And that's money in their pocket.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: That's money that is not there now.
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: That will be there next year.
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: At this time.
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: And we told them and I think you were at the meeting we told them that they had $2.7 million in in-lose.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: This is for this year.
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: The previous year.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: For this year it's a little over $4 million and we told them at that meeting this time next year that $4 million and we told them at that meeting this time next year that $4 million would be somewhere around above $10 million, which it's going to be.
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: I just have to ask do you just compute this stuff in your head or do you have a computer that rolls this information out?
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: I do a lot of it in my head and on Greenbar.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: People laugh at me when I do it on Greenbar.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Can you explain to our listeners what Greenbar is.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: That's that paper that comes out of those old printers.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: That's that paper that comes out of the old printers.
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: I'm old school but I keep up with it pretty good, I think.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: My favorite thing about going into Greg's office to talk to him is you ask him a question and he'll roll his chair over to the file cabinet that's across the room and he pulls it open.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: He knows exactly what drawer to open.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: He knows exactly what green bar piece of paper he's looking for.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: He pulls it right out, throws it on there and can explain it in great detail.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Top to bottom.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: It is back.
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: It is something to behold back to your question about the city and the um?
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: Um, new development.
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, also somewhere within the city limits.
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: Um, I'm not for annexation, but for the city to grow at a rate it should grow they have to have a place uh, a lot of acreage to put a big investment to raise that 225.
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: We can have developments all over the city, but until we have a big $100 million or $150 million investment in lieu, that's where we're going to have the growth.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, but industrial I mean, you've got to pay.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: If you're an industry in the city, you've got to pay city, county and school taxes.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: If you're an industry in the county, you've only got to pay county and school taxes.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: That's correct.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: So there's a huge disincentive for industry to come to any city.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: That's correct, not.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Columbus, any city.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: You're correct on that Two times the taxes is cheaper than three.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: So can you make up that ground with commercial?
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Can you make up that ground with housing developments and just bringing in more residents?
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: Can you get that value that way You're going to get some value, but you're not going to get the value that you need.
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: To go up from $250,000 or $300,000 per mil no.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's got to be industry, right, okay.
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: To raise that city value.
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: To raise that city value and, like you said, when you're paying 165 mils inside the city and 97 outside the city, that's a no-brainer.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you about Lee Mall or Columbus Place.
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: You've been tracking that whole business since it was Lee Mall and you saw the decline of that.
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: We've discussed this several times and, uh, you know they bought the property for 3.5 million dollars on in bankruptcy several years ago now.
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: Right, uh, and our city leaders and county leaders agreed to assess them at that three and a half million.
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: Uh, banking on this agreement that they made, getting it back.
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: What I saw happening is we had it assessed around $12 million when it was fully operation and for fully commercially producing and we dropped it over a period of time so it wouldn't hurt the city as much, down to the $3.5 million.
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: What I saw happening was it going from $3.5 million.
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: What I saw happening was going from $3.5 million and being fully developed a little at a time, going back to the $12 million.
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: And that is the cosmetics, and everything have been done to leave them all.
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: But you have only three or four tenants right now and I understand that those whole group only want certain tenants.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Right Well, is it worth less right now than three and a half million, or what's it worth right now?
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: No, in my opinion, the land is worth more than three and a half million alone, if it was nothing on the property at all, it would be more than three3.5 million and we have created a parcel where the developer gets all the new growth, like Five Below is one business that operated after they're paying those taxes on Five Below and we're giving those taxes back to the developer for an incentive.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Right, and that's city and county.
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: That's city and county.
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: I think the city may be giving some of the sales tax.
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: That's correct yeah, I'm not sure on that.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: How do you see that working out?
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I guess long term.
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: I'm not sure.
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: I'd like to see it fully developed, but I've had my doubts the whole time about how it would play out.
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: And the mall looks much better than it did cosmetically and you know, just drive by looking at it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: But if you only want certain tenants in your mall, you're not going to fill your mall up as quickly as tenants that want to be there.
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: We have tenants that have moved out of there in other parts of the city that want to be at Lee Mall.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: I mean the Hibachi moved out.
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: The Hibachi several businesses, Sam Harris' businesses.
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: Sam had, I think, two or three businesses in Lee Mall.
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: He was one of the last ones to leave Lee Mall.
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: He didn't want to leave Lee Mall.
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: He was one of the last ones to leave Lee Mall.
• 36:52
  Speaker 6: He didn't want to leave.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Lee Mall.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: It's kind of a touchy thing because I'm looking at it from an impatient standpoint.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: You know I don't see really nice things.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Just go in there just makes the whole town feel vibrant.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: But at the same time I'm not in favor of the government putting their hand on the scales and forcing things that aren't you know.
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: I agree with that totally.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: And so for me it's like you just got to let the free market do its thing.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: But I'm not as patient as Grandpa Hull.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: I promise you that.
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: I agree with that too, and also the agreement that the agreement that was originally done, I think is off the table and I think that the city and county leaders are trying to do another agreement with the whole group at this point.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: Well, he won't have the incendiary person to deal with at the table this next go-around.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: As I understand it, that's correct.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Well, either one of them, yeah, yeah, but so how long have you been in office, gray?
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: I've been in.
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: I've been in the tax office since 1988.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I was elected in 1995, so this is my eighth term okay, lots changed around here since you first walked in that building it has.
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: Uh, when I first was elected, uh, mr henry perkins said this place has gotten too big for me, and at that point we were at 532 million assessed value.
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: And uh, now this role, right here we're at 1 billion 242 million assessed and I told someone at one point that when it gets to a billion it might be too big for me.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: But uh, but it's crossed it and you're going.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: It's crossed it and.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: I'm still here, okay.
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: And I plan to be here for another four years.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Well, you're not going to be where you are, though, are you?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: No, sir, moving across the?
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: street.
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: We're moving across the street in the old link building.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, probably before the all of the supervisors Is there anything you want to add.
• 38:54
  Speaker 6: I was just a pleasure being here.
• 38:56
  Speaker 6: I appreciate you asking me here and I appreciate you asking me here.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen, tax assessor Mr Greg Andrews, before we close the show today, I think it's important to acknowledge what happened on the national stage since our last episode Last Wednesday.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: Not too long after leaving the studio, my phone started blowing up about what had happened in Orem, utah and this is a local show, but what happened that day has affected all of us in one way or another.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Charlie Kirk's name was mentioned over the loudspeakers at the football game in Starkville.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: There was a vigil on campus and there will be another vigil tonight in New Hope, tonight being Thursday, and I've struggled in sackcloth and ashes over what to say today.
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: And here's what I've got.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: Hear me out the things about this that upset me the most.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: As a conservative, I have found that these things aren't really happening here.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: That's the local thing that I would affix to all of this by and large, the really ugly stuff, the stuff that makes me embarrassed to be a human being.
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: It's happening mostly in other states.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: We are the friendly city, properly so-called, and I sit here across the table from Zach, who is my friend, who I enjoy disagreeing with because I find agreement quite boring.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Typically, peter is over there in the corner at the computer also my friend, and at the end of the day, I am hopeful that we can as hard as it can be sometimes, especially for me just remember our manners and continue to show up for each other, pray together, grieve together and continue to disagree without for each other.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: Pray together, grieve together and continue to disagree without tearing each other down.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: That's where it's at and I think that's how we'll move forward, keeping it real here in Catfish Alley Studio.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Well said.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: So we have three things to know.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Number one fried chicken is back on the menu at food giant on alabama street, the grocery store deli is fully operational again, after a pair of kitchen fires in august placed its renowned mound of crispy poultry on a brief hiatus.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: If you catch the lunch rush, just remember you might be in line for a minute well, well, zach, that's um.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: you may not be aware of this, and in fact I wasn't until I came in the studio and read about it but 3,800.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: 3,800 a day.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: 3,800 pieces of chicken a day Of chicken dude man, that's a lot of beaks and talons and feathers.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Number two the Canaan Missionary Baptist Church on Bell Avenue was badly damaged in a Sunday afternoon fire.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: No one was injured and no foul play is expected, but Columbus Fire and Rescue ruled the structure a total loss.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: The church, which plans to rebuild, is celebrating its 156th anniversary in November.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, god bless those people.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, god bless those people.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Number three Rural King held a soft opening Thursday on Highway 45.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: The self-proclaimed outdoor superstore breathed life into the old location of Kmart, which closed in 2018.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Rural King's grand opening is set for September 26th.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: That's the best thing that's happened in the Kmart parking lot in a very long time.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you're aware, but that was the place to hang out during the day and it was not always a kosher place to hang out, if you know what.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, well, there's always one of those in a town.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Sure, but the local churches actually kind of came and took over that place for a little while, cleaned things up the more you know.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: We thank all of you for joining us today.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: Be sure to follow the show and share it.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: Help us get the word out and keep our hometown a better place, as always.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Tips at cdispatchcom.
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: You can follow me as well.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: Facebook or x at d chisholm double zero.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: So your host has been zach player and I am David Chisholm.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Let's keep it friendly and we'll keep it real up in here.