City of Petal moves forward with annexation plans

PETAL, Miss. - The City of Petal voted 5-1 Tuesday in favor of the annexation plans.

Mayor of Petal, Hal Marx said, "It's very beneficial to our whole community. Because if The City of Petal is not allowed to grow, then eventually the whole outline community would feel those effects. You have to have a healthy vibrant city to have a good community even on the outskirts and people who live out in the country."

Marx said the city's attorney will file the annexation papers within the next ten days.

"After that, it'll be in the court's hands and I believe there's about a 40-day period where people would then have a chance to review what we are proposing and to file any type of objections if they choose to do that, said Marx."

Marx believes that one of the reasons some people are against the annexation plans is because of taxes.

"There's a lot of people that go out there and try to say that their taxes will double or triple. That's actually impossible because they're already paying two taxes. They're paying a county tax and a school tax. Our tax would be a third tax, but it's the lowest of three that they'll pay, said Marx."

If people choose to take this to court, it could potentially delay the annexation process.

Marx said he wants people to not think this is a government versus city conflict, but an opportunity to improve city growth.