A 19 percent cut in state funds paid to Warren County to reimburse lost tax revenue due to homestead exemptions will result in more cuts to charities that supervisors seek legislative permission to support.

Homestead exemption is a state-set program under which property owners get a reduction in property taxes for homes in which they reside. In turn, the state is supposed to reimburse counties for the money they would have collected without the exemptions.

The first of two checks from the state will total $229,424.48, which is $55,100.52 less than the amount used when the county prepared its budget, County Administrator John Smith said Monday.

“We’re going to offset it by now allowing social services to employ a social aid worker,” Smith said, referring to the local Department of Human Services office, adding 10 organizations expected to receive funding this year could be cut more, too.

“If you can help from crippling anybody’s programs, fine, but we’re a pretty basic operation — truly. We don’t have many frills,” said District 5 Supervisor Richard George, board president.

Warren County is one of very few that for several years has asked the Legislature for permission to impose taxes the county can collect and turn over to charities. Without legislative permission, the donations would be illegal.

The county has already said this year’s pledges to charities the board selected would be cut 10 percent. That figure could rise to 12 percent and “wouldn’t really be strangling anybody,” George said.

More applications for homestead exemptions were filed in Warren County this year than last, 11,526 versus 11,416 in 2008. The county’s first refund indicates at least $7,000 less than originally budgeted will flow back to the general fund. Tax rates stayed level this year, but a 5.9 percent jump in land values from hotel and casino development likely raised property taxes in some areas. Word of the state’s cut during a lengthy budget update Monday was not entirely unexpected, as car tag revenues have also taken a hit amid the recession’s effect on the state’s finances. The state uses part of its car tag revenue to fund the homestead exemption rebates.

Supervisors also appear poised to cut spending in areas outside the general fund, such as grant matches and cost shares for the Independence Day events downtown. 

“That’s not going to hurt anybody if we don’t do it,” District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale said of the county’s contribution to the fireworks show and related festivities, normally funded by the City of Vicksburg, local casinos and others. County funding of the event was sliced to $9,000 from $10,000 for this year’s July 4th celebration.

Supervisors indicated they would reject a $100,000 grant to replace four of 15 tornado warning sirens, most of which were erected in the mid-1980s, to avoid paying a 25 percent match. The grant did not include installation costs, most recently estimated at $69,000 apiece, Emergency Management Director Gwen Coleman said. Costs to help expand the city’s telephone notification system, CodeRED, would be too high, Coleman said. The Florida service vendor would be paid $17,750 annually and more staff would be needed to input nonmunicipal phone numbers into the database. Supervisors decided earlier this month to advertise for an operations officer in EMA, which would be the fourth such person to hold the title since 2006.  

Added spending to house Vicksburg inmates in other counties’ facilities is assured, Smith said, as invoices detailing unpaid expenses for all of 2009 and January 2010 have arrived from Issaquena and Madison counties. The bills total $151,088.13, with all but $3,000 going to Issaquena.

Another financial point involving supervisors and the sheriff’s department has been collection of delinquent personal property taxes, in many cases inventories held by businesses.

The list of unpaid taxes for 2006 through 2008 was pared to $226,714.32 in mid-January from more than $531,000 in August.

“We levy taxes every year — not because it was a nice thing to do but because we have a budget to fund,” George said Monday, echoing consternation among the current board who have wanted Sheriff Martin Pace to follow through on more lockouts to collect every dollar possible.

Pace said he may seek an attorney general’s opinion on the legality of the state statute, but declined to elaborate on what grounds such a request would take.

Property can be sold for unpaid taxes, which is the normal process. Supervisors have also favored an alternative “distress warrant” process under which courts can issue orders to seize property upon the belief that if taxes are not collected immediately, the debtors will not be found.

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com