Starkville Mayor Urges Aldermen to Abandon Their Own Tax Cut
STARKVILLE — Mayor Lynn Spruill asked the Board of Aldermen on Aug. 15 to drop its own proposal to cut the city's property tax rate, telling members at a budget work session that Starkville should hold the line at 34 mills to pay for the police and fire staffing it has already committed to.
The item before the board would lower the millage rate from 34 mills to 28.69 mills for fiscal year 2027. It was the aldermen's own proposal. The objection came from the mayor.
“I think we ought to leave that at 34 mills and we should continue to honor those obligations that we've made to have a huge amount of quality personnel, give them what they need to do their job,” Spruill said.
The board did not vote on the rate at the work session.
The 5.31-mill gap between the two figures is not arbitrary. Starkville is working through a countywide reassessment that has lifted average assessed values by 18 to 20 percent, a revision the city discussed in July, when officials indicated they wanted to stay at 34 mills. By the Wire's calculation, 28.69 mills applied to values 18.5 percent higher would raise approximately what 34 mills raised on the old values; if values rose the full 20 percent, the lower rate would bring in slightly more than the old rate did. The practical question before the board is therefore not whether to cut spending, but how much of the reassessment increase the city collects.
The discussion took place against a budget gap of roughly $1 million. Spruill suggested the board look at its own compensation before reducing services, saying members should consider “a reduction in our pay” and adding: “I certainly am willing to take one.” No vote on compensation was taken.
The mayor also used the session to acknowledge that she approved closing Fire Station 3 on July 10 and moving its firefighters to Station 5 without notifying the full board.
“Where I erred — and you got my apologies — is not notifying the board en masse. I should have done that,” Spruill said.
She described the closure as an operational decision, and told members that the private ambulance provider Pafford now occupies the vacated station at no cost to the city.
No alderman objected to the closure itself; the objections concerned the absence of notice. Fire department staffing has been contested in Starkville before — the vice mayor objected to a restructuring of the department at an Aug. 6 meeting, warning against “increasing the size of government.”
The rate decision remains open. Whether the board adopts 28.69 mills or returns to 34 will determine how much of the reassessment increase Starkville collects from property owners in fiscal year 2027.