Property taxes, income taxes and sales taxes may be a burden on companies and individuals, but they can have a large impact on the bank accounts of county and city governments.

Depending on political views, taxation ideals can range from believing taxes are pure theft from hardworking individuals because they’re unfairly collected from the working class and the elite or that improper and corrupt governance led to misuse of the public’s money.

Any way you cut it, everyone has an opinion about the U.S. tax structure.

This week, the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors voted to grant a tax exemption to one of the largest, and possibly most profitable, companies in the county.

While the oil industry may have taken a hit

in the past year, it doesn’t compare to the hit county coffers are going to take when an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue isn’t collected.

After a tight budget year wherein the county was forced to leave the millage rate where it was, consequently

raising the property taxes for some residents due to a change in assessment values, it seems counterintuitive to extend such a extreme revenue cut at this time.

As the Board has enumerated many times, services require money, and the county collects money through taxes.

Today’s question of the week also focused in on this topic. Many of our respondents discussed the importance of stimulating small businesses and not propping up large corporations that have the financial backing of multiple plants and operations.

More often than not, counties will entice business to their area by using a tax reduction as a lure or an incentive to stay.

Exact totals have yet to be finalized for this new measure, but it seems clear there will be an impact on more than just the company’s finances.