DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — A Desoto County tax collector, Joey Treadway, is threatening he’ll stop collecting taxes unless he’s paid more to do his job.

The warning reportedly came in the form of a letter during the March 20 county board of supervisors meeting in which Treadway cited the increased county growth as a reason for doubling his salary.

Desoto County District 5 Supervisor Michael Lee admits it might take a “bush hog” to cut through demands made in a letter on March 20 by county tax collector Joey Treadway and presented to county supervisors. Treadway said he will stop collecting county taxes without a substantial pay increase.

“I don’t think you could probably cover it with my interview. I think you gotta “get in the weeds” to find out where it all began and where it all started,” Lee said. “You have an obligation to the taxpayers to continue, you swore and oath, and I said this in the meeting, you swore an oath to continue to collect those taxes because that’s the position you ran for.”

Treadway is a retired county employee, receiving about $102,000 in retirement and a salary of $25,600 as tax collector, and he’s requesting a $72,000 raise.

However, he’s proposing to come out of retirement, a move that would increase his salary to $255,700, and he’s attributing his pay raise to the county’s growth.

Supervisor Lee admits that Treadway’s demands, if not met, could present a real headache for the county.

“If he decides not to collect those county taxes, what’s it going to cost the city of Hernando, the City of Southaven, Olive Branch, Horn Lake and the little town of Walls, what’s it going to cost them to collect their own taxes,” Lee said.

No decision has been made on Treadway’s demands, who had very little to say Friday about the issue.

“Everything that we’re doing right now is in negotiations and we do not feel that we need to violate the negotiations on one side or the other. As soon as things move forward, [I’ll] be glad to talk to you,” Treadway said

A DeSoto County spokesperson declined to go any further saying, “We’re trying to work out a solution for the tax collector and how he will go forward with collecting taxes for municipalities.”