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Editorials
Late tax bills cost taxpayers : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisLate tax bills cost taxpayers
| 3/4/2010
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Kendall County Board Chairman Anne Vickery told a gathering of local governmental officials in Oswego Feb. 16 that county officials have been working to adjust the county's property tax schedule so that it is once again comparable to other area counties.
Until the middle years of this past decade, the county treasurer's office would usually mail out property tax bills the first week in May with the first of two installment payment due in early June and the second payment due in September.
But as growth in the county accelerated and thousands more properties were added onto to the tax rolls, the county's tax bill cycle slowed and the bills were being mailed out much later than in previous years. In 2008, tax bills were not mailed until mid-July with the first payment due date in August.
While many county property owners probably didn't mind receiving their bills later, the delay was actually costing them money. The late bills meant that some county's taxing districts were receiving their tax revenues from the county later and were, in some cases, having to take out bank loans called Tax Anticipation Warrants (TAWS) so they would have enough cash on hand to pay their bills. Agencies like the Oswego School District, by far the largest government agency in the county, which took out TAWS, had to pay those warrants back with interest. School district taxpayers paid those interest charges. It was a needless extra expense that taxpayers should not have been put on the hook to pay.
Previous county officials would point to bureaucrats in Springfield as the reason for the slowdown in the mailing of the tax bills. But what always puzzled us was that neighboring, high-growth counties like Kane and Will were not experiencing similar problems in getting out their tax bills. As development boomed in those counties, they continued to mail out their bills in early May with June due dates. More importantly, they continued to distribute their tax revenues to local agencies in a timely manner, forestalling the need for the agencies to issue TAWs.
Last year Kendall County officials were more prompt in mailing out the tax bills and Vickery said they are continuing to work to make sure this year's bills come on time.
"All of the taxing districts will be getting their money at a much faster rate than you had been the last several years. That should help everybody," Vickery said. For the sake of the county's taxpayers we hope so.
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