Before the Summit County Commission approved a $46.5 million budget last week more than 88 percent of property owners in the county had paid their taxes on time.
“Which is pretty good,” said the county’s Chief Deputy Treasurer Beth Jacobson.
Property-tax collection rates in Summit County usually exceed 90 percent, she said, adding that the deadline to pay was Dec. 1.
“I feel like the collections have come in really good this year,” Jacobson said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “A lot of that is mortgage companies so you know that they are going to be paying the taxes You’re going to get paid if the mortgage doesn’t go into foreclosure.”
Still, economic recession looms and some have requested more time to pay.
“We have had a few people that have called in and have asked if they can go on a payment plan. So I think that probably [the recession] has hurt some people,” Jacobson said. “We do take partial payments. It’s just that they know that they will be penalized.”
Tardy taxpayers whose bills exceed $500 are assessed a two-percent penalty fee on late payments, she said.
“If it’s under $500 then it’s a $10 penalty,” Jacobson said.
Interest begins accruing on tax payments not made by January 16, she added.
“We never turn down people’s payments. If they can’t come up with the money, they can pay whatever they want unless it goes into jeopardy of being sold,” Jacobson said, adding that properties with delinquent taxes are usually are not sold by the county for at least five years. “They just send in what they want to send in.”
Meanwhile, these taxes will help Summit County fund a nearly $47 million operating budget next year.
“The 2009 budget doesn’t require a tax increase, and the budget reflects a nine percent decrease in spending for the year, from $51.1 million (in 2007) to $46.5 million,” Summit County Commissioner Bob Richer said.
Next year county employees will receive no merit pay increases and there is a hiring freeze for all new workers, he explained.
“These two decisions will help fund our additional cost of health insurance (for employees,) which went up 15.8 percent,” Richer said.
But perhaps most significant was cutting the budget for building projects in the county from $8.6 million last year to $2.4 million in 2009, he said. Much of last year’s capital expenditures funded reconstruction of Landmark Drive at Kimball Junction.
“Our two main sources of revenue are the property tax and sales tax,” Richer said. “We really have not seen any substantial decrease in our sales-tax revenue [and] property tax is a pretty stable tax.”
The downturn in the economy, however, could impact real-estate development, he warned.
“New growth is just added dollars into the system,” Richer said.
A plan to counter recession in Summit County required department heads envision cutting 20 percent of their budgets if necessary.
“We’ve asked all of the department heads to look at anywhere from a five- to a 20-percent decrease and we’re prepared if the worst should occur,” Richer said.