Starkville Holds Tax Rate at 34 Mills as Reassessment Lifts Values 18–20 Percent
STARKVILLE — City officials confirmed this week that Starkville's property tax millage will stay at 34 mills for the 2026-2027 budget year, even as a countywide reassessment pushes average assessed values up 18 to 20 percent.
Because tax bills are calculated by applying the millage rate to assessed value, holding the rate steady while assessments rise means many Starkville property owners could pay more, even though the rate itself has not changed.
Presenting the draft budget at a board work session, officials argued that a rate cut would do little for taxpayers. “If we dropped our millage three mills, it would have less than a 2% impact on somebody's tax bill,” the official said.
Walking the Board of Aldermen through the numbers, one official said the city "would need to cut roughly three-quarters of a million dollars out of our budget," including "a quarter million dollars" from the police department and "160,000" from the fire department, with smaller reductions falling on parks and the board itself. The city instead plans to hold its millage rate steady at 34 mills.
The board is scheduled to hold public hearings on August 18 and September 1, with adoption of the budget expected by September 1.