Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Fiscal Court approves lower sheriff tax collection fee for Simpson County Schools
Loading...
Summary
Simpson County Fiscal Court approved reducing the sheriff's tax-collection fee for Simpson County Schools from 3% to 2.041%. Sheriff Jere Hopson cautioned the change will reduce the sheriff's revenue by an estimated $55,000–$80,000 depending on collections.
Simpson County Fiscal Court on Oct. 4, 2022 voted to accept Simpson County Schools’ request to lower the sheriff tax collection rate from 3% to 2.041%.
Sheriff Jere Hopson explained that, under the applicable procedure, the school district may request the sheriff to calculate its actual cost of collecting taxes and that the court can adopt the resulting rate. Hopson said approving the lower rate would reduce revenue for the sheriff’s office; he estimated the loss at about $55,000 to $80,000 depending on the level of collections.
Magistrate Nathaniel Downey moved to accept the reduced rate; Magistrate Myron Thurman seconded the motion, and the minutes record the vote as unanimous. The minutes do not record a separate fiscal offset to cover the sheriff’s lost revenue.
Magistrate Marty Chandler raised a public-records concern reported on social media about tax bills being printed on postcards with visible values. Sheriff Hopson responded that the information on the postcards is public record and that mailing bills in envelopes would add an estimated $5,000–$6,000 in cost and increase the chance of mailing errors.
The court did not record additional mitigations or a plan to compensate the sheriff’s office for the projected revenue loss. The change takes effect administratively with the new collection rate for the school district’s bills.