Livingston Approves 9¢ Property Tax Increase

Livingston Aldermen approved a nine-cent property tax increase along with the rest of the city’s 2024-25 budget in a special called meeting Friday.

Mayor Curtis Hayes said the increase is necessary to provide for the city’s various departments that cannot support themselves financially. Hayes said that changes in the supply chain and labor market have made it so that they have to spend more money across the board.

“It will bring in a total of $86,310,” Hayes said. “$60,000 of that is going to police and fire, maybe more. Maybe more. With a new fireman coming in, $40,000, boom.”

Hayes said there will be raises in multiple departments including the police, fire, parks, and street departments. He said the city did a pay scale that showed their employees were being “severely underpaid.”

“If you want to continue your police, you want to continue your fire, you want to continue your parks, you have to pay these employees,” Hayes said.

Hayes said there are also various equipment purchases in the budget including two police squad cars, a long-arm bush hog for the street department, and the funds for the water department to purchase either a Ditch Witch or a rubber tire backhoe.

“How this comes about is I sit down with all the supervisors and have them write down a wish list of things they would like to have, and sometimes it turns into, ‘Well, it’s more than that, Mayor. We really need one,'” Hayes said. “So that’s kind of how that goes.”

Alderman Bill Linder abstained to vote on the budget, saying that he was concerned how the tax increase would impact citizens on a fixed income. Hayes said if they did not want to have the nine-cent increase they would have to discuss what items they would be cutting from the general fund.

“Do you want to cut the fireman, do you want to cut sanitation, do you want to cut police?” Hayes said. “Just tell me where. That’s where we are.”

Hayes said the goal is to bring in more sales tax revenue so that the general fund can stand on its own two feet like other city funds do.

“That’s why we hired the retail coach to help us with that a little bit,” Hayes said. “Now we’ve not got any brick and mortar out of that deal, but we are certainly – haven’t lost any revenue.”

Hayes said that MTAS recommends increasing property taxes by five cents each year to avoid falling behind in revenue.

“None of us want property tax increase,” Hayes said. “None of us. Period. But as the late great Bill Winningham would say, it’s a necessary evil.”