On a 4-1 vote, Vicksburg Warren School District trustees OK’d a spending plan Thursday for the 2007-08 budget year, one including nearly $40 million in state funding and anticipating higher local tax collections — not rates — will boost the local share.

Trustees said they have calculated no increase in the overall Warren County millage rate, 46.2 mills, for schools will be needed; however, the final tally is done by Warren County supervisors who, in September, are required to set a tax rate sufficient to meet the trustees’ funding request.

For this tax year, the schools’ budgeted an $800,000 increase in local tax revenue and that was accomplished without a rate increase. For the previous year, a small rate increase was required even though trustees indicated no increase would be needed.

For the year starting July 1, the 9,100-student district expects $1.3 million more in local revenue based on higher valuations of property and a net gain in taxable properties. “They’re going to go up because of reassessments every year,” Superintendent James Price said.

Despite the steady millage rate, District 4 Trustee Jan Daigre voted against the budget.

“The problem of being an elected official is you only get one vote,” Daigre said, adding she could not support any budget that included a tax increase even if it didn’t involve a millage rate hike.

The school district’s $75.9 million budget includes a request for $23,849,469 from local taxpayers through assessments on industries, businesses, homes, vehicles and other taxable items.

About 51.5 percent of the budget is state funding, or $39,906,389, slightly more than what the district expected for the budget year.

Numbers were approved in May and submitted to the Mississippi Department of Education in August. The Legislature has pledged to fund fully the Mississippi Adequate Education Program and include teacher raises by 2009.

The district is eligible for $537,001 in local contribution funds from MAEP this year, based on the total state allocation.

Including $10.6 million in state educational bonds refinanced by the district this year, the total budget reaches $87 million. Salaries and benefits comprise 67 percent of district expenditures.

Among the salary increases are 3 percent for the faculty and a 12 percent raise for Price, whose annual salary will grow to $140,000 from $123,600.

Price is in his fifth year as superintendent of the 9,200-student Vicksburg Warren School District. His current contract carries through the 2009-10 school year.

Because taxes on all property are derived starting from fair market value factors, Tax Assessor Richard Holland was asked earlier this year why, if property values were declining nationally, appraisals were rising here. The response was that while it was theoretically possible for people to see lower tax bills if their homes declined in value, the assessors here use local comparable sales factors and there have been no dramatic shifts. Property values here are still rising.

Tax calculation season continues in August when city and county officials receive budget requests for their operations. The total millage set is collected on vehicles starting Oct. 1 and bills for real and other personal property are due Jan. 1.