Making payments : Property tax collections up this month over April ’07
Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/64843/
Washington County Collector David Ruff said April property tax collections are higher than they were in April 2007.
The books open in March, he said, but April is typically when the office really begins collecting property taxes, which include personal and real estate taxes, because statements are sent to people the first week of April. Property taxes, which fund different governmental entities throughout the county, are due Oct. 10.
“ We’ve been working really hard receipting money that comes in the mail, ” Ruff said of the influx of taxpayer money in April. “ They’ve got the money now, and it seems like they want to pay them now. That’s a different trend than we normally see around here. ”
Total property taxes collected this April (for 2007 tax ) totaled $ 41. 1 million, while it was $ 31. 12 million last April (for 2006 tax ), according to information provided by the Washington County Collector’s office. This represents about a 24 percent increase.
Some of that increase is skewed a bit because about $ 9 million due from Land America, a mortgage company, was posted at the collector’s office the first day of May 2007, according to bookkeeping records at the collector’s office. When adding the $ 9 million to the April 2007 total, the increase this April is about 2 percent. Delinquent collections, which are past-due taxes from prior years, also are up so far this year. Delinquent collections in March 2007 totaled $ 485, 869, while it was $ 661, 134 this March, according to the collector’s office data. Delinquent collections in April 2007 totaled $ 365, 268. This April, they were $ 420, 932. The total collected figures for April are preliminary and may differ from the amount reflected on the completed settlement, the collector’s office staff said. Reasons for the increase Ruff said there may be a couple of reasons for the increase in tax collections. One of them has to do with individuals paying early. Ruff said he talked to a man who said he was worried about whether he would have the money at the end of the year, so he paid early. “ That seems to be the sentiment of a lot of people, ” Ruff said. But he said it probably has a lot more to do with the mortgage company paying earlier than it did last year.
Effect on the county budget “ I don’t think it will change the budget. Even though the collector’s got more money for April, he’s still going to get only so much in, ” Roger Haney, Washington County treasurer, said of the April hike in collections. “ It’ll have a positive effect as far as cash flow. ”
But the county’s cash flow is not that bad right now, he said, because an effort is made to keep a “ pretty healthy carryover ” from the previous year in the budget. Some of that carryover is used to pay bills that continue to come in after the first of the year, he said. The cash carryover from 2007 was $ 7 million for the general fund.
“ We’ve gotten some money in since then, ” Haney said.
That includes sales tax money, which was up for the first time this month (based on February collections ) after 16 months of decreasing revenues.
If total sales tax revenues come in less than anticipated — less than projected for the budget — the increasing property taxes help, Haney said, at least with cash flow. “ It might not help necessarily on the budget part, ” he said. The projection for property taxes in the 2008 budget is $ 10. 5 million for the general fund, he said. It is projected at $ 980, 000 in the road and bridge fund. Those are set numbers, as are sales taxanticipated revenues, used to build the budget. Haney said he understands why some people may be paying property taxes early. “ I don’t think it’s unusual, a lot of times when times start to get hard, that people try to take care of those things that they know they’re going to have to pay, ” he said. He also said some people hold back on paying taxes and set the money aside to draw interest until payment time. But interest is not high right now, he said. “ It doesn’t give them any advantage to do that, ” he said. Property taxes
more stable Even though the current hike in property tax collections has little effect on a set, projected property tax figure for the county budget, one justice of the peace said he would like to see more reliance on property taxes to fund county operations.
JP Steve Zega, who serves on the Washington County Quorum Court’s Finance Committee, said he thinks property taxes are a much more stable form of revenue than sales taxes.
If he had his way, Zega said, he would rely on sales taxes as a primary means to buy and pay off bonds for capital projects and use property taxes for operational needs.
For instance, he said, he would prefer using property taxes to fund operations if a new Washington County Detention Center pod is built, but use sales taxes (if voters approve them ) to finance the pod itself.
Still, he said, the fact remains that the county relies on sales taxes for overall funding.
“ We’ve kind of made that bed ” said.