A tax increase appears inevitable for property owners in Jones County, but the amount of the hike will remain in question until all the millage rates have been set.

The amount of the possible tax increases according to the required advertisement in the county’s legal organ, The Jones County News, fluctuates from 23.54 percent by the Board of Education, 22.73 percent by the City of Gray, and 19.07 percent from the county. The county rate increases 17.03 percent for taxpayers living in Gray city limits.

The Board of Education and City of Gray kept their millage rates the same as last year in advertising their tentative rates and the county reduced its rate by .56 or a little more than half a mill.

All the advertised rates are tentative and may remain the same or may be lowered when the actual tax rate is set, but it cannot be raised. The Board of Education will be the first to set its millage rate Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. in the board conference room located at the Board of Education building on Stewart Avenue.

Jones County commissioners are scheduled to set the county’s millage rate Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. in the Charlotte Wilson Conference Room at the Jones County Government Center, and the City of Gray millage rate will be set Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the D.V. Childs Civic Center next to City Hall.

Before the tax rate is set, each government entity increasing taxes is required to hold hearings in order to give the public the opportunity for input. The Board of Education public hearings are set for Nov. 15 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The Jones County commissioners’ hearings are Nov. 27 at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and the city’s hearings are scheduled for Nov. 23, 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. and Nov. 30 at 6 p.m.

The reason for the percentage increases is that all Jones County properties were revalued this year. Property owners received notice of changes in their property values in July and 2,000 of them appealed the increase.

The purpose of the revaluation was to establish the fair market value of the real property in Jones County. The county was fined $17,000 by the state for the past two years because its property values were too low. The amount of the fine was calculated by the state to be the amount of additional taxes it would have received if the values were within acceptable limits.

Chief Tax Assessor Linda Sibley said if the values were not corrected by 2008, Jones County faced a fine of $5 per parcel for the 15,000 real property and 2,500 personal property parcels, which would total over $80,000. The county faced the same penalties prior to its 2001 revaluation, which was the first since 1985 and took two years to complete.

The county’s revaluation does not necessarily mean that a property owner will pay more taxes, even if the value of the property was increased. The amount of tax paid depends on the tax rate set by the Board of Education, county commissioners, and if the property is inside city limits, the city council.

The millage rate (also known as the tax rate) is a figure applied to the value of property to calculate property tax liability. One ‘mill’ is one dollar of tax on every thousand dollars of taxable value, and property is taxed at 40 percent of its fair market value.

A $100,000 home is taxed at 40 percent or $40,000. One mill tax on that property would equal $40, and, for example, if the tax rate were 10 mills, the tax would be multiplied by 10 and would equal $400.