By Rod Zook
Reno County Treasure Jan Hull says the county could save about 20-thousand dollars of they drop the practice of issuing second notices for property taxes. The matter was up for discussion only Tuesday during the County Commission meeting. The county is not required to give second notices and Hull says she wants to discontinue the practice.
The proposal was met with opposition by two of three county commissioners who felt it was up to them to provide service to tax payers. But, the commission also admitted that it was up to Hull to make the decision and that commissioners have no say in the matter other then to offer their thoughts.
Hull says the “pros” to discontinuing the second notices would be the obvious savings and less work printing out the notices. The “cons” would be the possible amount of delinquent taxes due to lack of notification from the county, payments made with no identification of accounts and extra staff time opening mail. Hull says her staff is in favor of the change.
Currently, McPherson, Anderson, Crawford, Miami, Stafford, Riley and Butler Counties send just one notice, while Scott, Ford and Finney Counties send a post card reminder. Hull says that method would save the county about 5-thousand dollars.
She says that she talked with one county and for the first two years, the number of delinquent payments increased, but fell back to normal levels once the public got used to the changes.
If Implemented, the change would affect about 17-thousand, 400-taxpayers in Reno County.