JEFFERSON — Jackson County Finance Director John Hulsey and County Manager Darrell Hampton are working with Jackson County’s nine municipalities and three school systems to perform an audit of personal property — one that could bring more tax revenue to the county.

The county hopes to partner with the municipalities and school systems to help pay for the audit, which would focus on “items used either to run the business or fabricate whatever the business manufactures,” rather than looking at land or buildings, Hampton said.

The county has incurred the cost thus far for the study but will need the municipalities and school systems’ help to keep it going.

“We’ve begun an initiative of contracting with a company to come in and conduct an audit of all the personal property returns that have been filed within the county,” Hulsey said at the Jackson County Board of Education meeting Aug. 10. “Obviously this economy we’re all trying to survive in presents a lot of interesting budget challenges for us all, as you are well aware. We felt like to continue this initiative, we would need to make it a collaborative effort among the cities, the school systems and the county.”

The contract costs $110,000 and each municipality and school system will help pay for the study by “looking at the total millage rate that is levied by the different tax entities and coming up with a proportional share of the cost based on your millage rate,” Hulsey explained.

As new values are found, they will be reported to the tax assessors office and Tax Commissioner Don Elrod will give Hulsey a monthly report so the county’s finance department could apply the percentages each municipality or school board would pay.

After the total $110,000 is paid off, school systems and municipalities would keep all added value coming in.

And if no new values are found?

“If there’s no value discovered in your taxing jurisdiction, then there’s no cost to you,” Hulsey said. “We want this to be a win-win situation for all these taxing entities.”

The audit is important to the county because these taxes remain one of the top sources of revenue for the county to continue to provide services and build infrastructure, he said.

“The county has made a significant investment in infrastructure to try to attract industry to the county to try to keep the tax digest diversified so we’re not so top-heavy with residential, but we feel like it’s important for us to ensure that we’re getting and garnering all the tax revenue that we can,” Hulsey said.

Though some Jackson County school board officials were worried that they would have to pay money upfront during an already-tight budget year, Hulsey and Hampton assured them that the only money they would pay would be a percentage of new tax money coming in.

The Jefferson City Schools Board of Education decided at their Aug. 13 meeting to join the contract with the county, and the Jackson County School System has not yet made a decision on it.