County collector explains late tax bills

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Saline County Treasurer and Collector Danny Ragan notifies property owners in Saline County they have not received their real estate tax bills for 2011, payable this year, and explains why.

The taxpayers need to know the process of how tax bills are figured and mailed. As of now, the tax information is still in the assessor's office, according to Ragan.

Since we have a township form of government, each township is responsible for assessing parcels within that township. When those township assessors have completed their work, they bring the assessments to the Saline County Supervisor of Assessments, who compiles all of the data and completes several processes to help insure that the parcels have been fairly assessed. Once these steps are completed, the Supervisor will apply to the state for a 'multiplier,' which is supposed to equalize the taxation in all of the counties across the state.

Since all townships cannot find an assessor, they join in a multi-township assessing district where one assessor assesses up to three townships. This process can cause the information to arrive at the courthouse later than it should.

This year was especially tough because it is a quadrennial year, when all parcels in the county have to be viewed and new information added to the records. In addition to the quad year duties this year, the office had to reassess values for 2011 flood damaged parcels, then had to work on tornado damage assessments.

Once the assessor has made the address corrections and updates, the files are shifted through the computer tax software to the county clerk's office. The clerk's office has to verify all 54 county taxing districts' rates and apply them to the assessed value of each parcel. Once the rates are applied and the figures are double checked for accuracy, the files are shifted to the county collector's office.

The county collector has already calculated the due dates and is responsible for ordering and mailing out the 23,000 tax bills. The first due date has to be at least 30 days after the mailing. The office collects around 55-percent of the taxes by the first due date and distributes the money to the taxing districts. By the second due date, about 95-percent of the total taxes has been collected and will be distributed. Around $18 million will be billed and collected this year. The remaining unpaid taxes will be sold at the annual delinquent tax sale and the owners will have to redeem the taxes at a much higher cost than if paid on time. Once the tax sale is completed and that money is distributed, it is time to start all over again.

Mobile home taxes were mailed in June and were delinquent as of July 6. A payment made for a mobile home has to have a $25 late fee included. This late fee will increase to $50 on August 7.

The county will be sending bills as soon as possible, but as of now it does not even have a tentative date. A pre deposit program is in place at the collector's office, whereby a taxpayer may send in a deposit toward the upcoming taxes. Simple applications are available to register for this program in the collector's office.