Reappraisals of homes, businesses, farmland and personal property in Vicksburg and Warren County for tax purposes won’t start for at least another month, as Warren County supervisors voted Monday to open the job for public bid instead of hiring a firm preferred by Tax Assessor Angela Brown.

The 3-2 vote was a choice of two legal avenues — one borne of the Legislature last year in House Bill 1214, which added licensed appraisers to the category of “professional services” that counties can hire without competitive bids. A second was a 2004 opinion by the Mississippi Supreme Court that ruled appraisal services must be advertised.

No legal challenge has prompted the state’s high court to weigh in on the bill since it became effective in July, an argument voiced by board attorney Marcie Southerland that won the day with supervisors.

“I understand the urgency of the tax assessor and what she is required to do,” she said. “But to be prudent, to err on the side of safety, I am suggesting that case law may very well prevail in the end,” Southerland said.

Last week, Brown asked supervisors to hire Louisville, Miss.-based Wes Kight and Associates LLC to a deal worth $520,000 over four years to perform state-mandated land roll updates. Another offer was on the table to allow Florence-based Statewide Appraisal Services Inc. to appraise personal property, or assets not fixed to land, for $64,000 over two years. Brown has asked the state Department of Revenue for more time to present land rolls to supervisors beyond a July 2 deadline.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George motioned to advertise, citing a need for the county “to deal within the law.” First-term District 1 Supervisor John Arnold, seen as a key swing vote, supported the move along with Board President Bill Lauderdale.

“If we make an error outside the law, that’s another expense to the taxpayers,” George said.

Including Brown, six employees staff the assessor’s office. Five people retired, quit or were fired since Brown was elected Nov. 8.

The county’s budget for 2011-12 allotted $321,986 for the office and projected five employees. Brown, who appeared in supervisors’ boardroom Monday but deferred to County Administrator John Smith to formally present the proposals before supervisors, said the annual cost would save the county $212,000 because three appraisal positions haven’t been filled. At the same time, Brown didn’t rule out hiring additional employees.

“Whether she has nine employees or 25 employees, it doesn’t matter,” District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon said before voting to support Brown’s request. “As long as she stays in her budget.”

By law, 25 percent of a county’s parcels must be reappraised to achieve an updated roll in four years. Indexes plugged into formulas to calculate property values have used a $105,000 baseline, lower than the $147,000 index DOR suggests for counties in the southern half of the state with sufficient new construction. Higher indexes mean higher values when counties change millage rates accordingly. In 2005, Warren County was given until 2007 to update it, DOR has said. The county’s land rolls have been approved by the agency each year since then, despite the same index.

District 2 Supervisor William Banks based his nay vote on the fact that former assessor Richard Holland never sought board approval to hire help to update the index.

“If he had been doing his job, we wouldn’t be in this position right now,” Banks said.