Even though the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors decided on a 3-1 vote to enter into an interlocal agreement with the City of Indianola to collect its real and property taxes, it is still not quite a done deal.
According to Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams the measure must successfully make it through a few more steps. He reminded the county lawmakers, "Now y'all voting to do this simply puts it before the Indianola city board. It has to be agreed to by the county and the city and the tax collector and the chancery clerk," he said.
McWilliams announced last week that he was working with City Attorney Kimberly Merchant to finalize the agreement for formal submission. He said on Monday that it was his understanding that County Tax Collector/Assessor Cynthia Chandler and Chancery Clerk Gloria McIntosh were in agreement with the terms, so upon acceptance by the city the only remaining step would be the attorney general’s blessing.
McWilliams said, “He has to approve it as an interlocal agreement.” In addition to that, the members also had to agree on how the fees collected from the city would be divided in the event of approval.
McWilliams asserted, “The thing that y'all need to be considering before we finalize this and submit it to the attorney general, you also have got to have an agreement between the the county and the chancery clerk and the tax collector about how much they will be paid for the additional work and services that they will be doing."
That vote was also 3-1 to accept the proposed breakdown submitted by Chandler. District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald voted no on both issues and District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark was absent.
The proposed agreement calls for the county tax collector’s office to collect Indianola taxes for 2.5 percent of the collected amount and divide the money three ways.
Based on current city collections, which Chandler said is $1.7 million, the total to the county would be $42,500 annually.
Chandler said, "I could have charged more, but I just said the 2.5 would be reasonable for the city and for the county."
She said McWilliams had suggested that one-fifth of the $42,500, $8,500, go to the county’s general fund and she proposed that the remainder be split with $22,667 for her office and the remaining $11,333 to the chancery clerk’s office.
Donald asked if the state had a preset formula for how it should be distributed and McWilliams said it did not.
The county is allowed to charge up to five percent for the service; however, McWilliams said the proposed amount is fair.
Donald also asked if the county’s fee would be added to the citizens' tax amount and McWilliams said that it would not.
“Citizens’ taxes will not increase, but the money would be retained from whatever is collected. We're going to send the city of Indianola 97 and a half percent of what we collect. Nobody is going to be charged anything extra," said McWilliams.
After Donald asked Chandler and McIntosh if they had considered how much it would cost them to collect the taxes, Chandler admitted that when she originally presented her rate to the city she was unaware that the chancery clerk would be included in the split.
Nonetheless, she is satisfied with her proceeds.
Donald said, "I don't want to get the horse going down the road and then realize that horse ain't going to make it where we're going.
“If you think that 2.5 is not enough to cover, before we sign off on this contract let's make sure it is enough."
Donald asked Chandler if she needed to up the amount from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent to make sure their expenses were properly covered.
“Dr. McIntosh's office needs to be taken care of properly, your office needs to be taken care of properly. We're doing them a service, they were paying 80 something thousand dollars or more to the clerk that they don't have, that's why they've got you doing it, because they don't have a clerk,” Donald said.
McIntosh stated that she is willing to follow Chandler’s lead and was willing to stay at the 2.5 percent. "I have agreed to it, I've accepted it, so I'm okay with it,” she said.
Donald persisted and expressed his opinions regarding the city not hiring a clerk to do the work.
"If Jane (Evans)was still there, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about it because she did it, she did what y'all talking about doing."
He stated that he didn't want the tax collector’s or the chancery clerk’s office to work for less than they should when doing the taxes.
“Because I really don't feel good about us doing it no way," he said.
McWilliams, said, “To me it just makes sense. Instead of going to two places to pay taxes, you can go to one place and pay tax. It's just better for the citizens and it saves money in the actual collection.”
He explained that the only extra work for the chancery clerk's office would involve the notifications of maturity of tax sales and in the tax collector's office the only extra duties would be in reporting to Indianola about what has and has not been collected.
Donald held to his previous contention that everyone does not pay their taxes at the same time since McWilliams had expressed that both taxes would be on the same bill.
The attorney had previously stated that it would be the board members’ decision to say if taxes could be paid in increments.
McWilliams said the proposed agreement is dated to start May 1 and if the city approves it they will immediately send it to the state attorney general and collection could begin with this year’s taxes.
“We have time to do it this year if we send it to him and they move on it quickly. Yes, 2020 taxes,” he said.
