SIDNEY — All in all, the Shelby County Treasurer’s office had a pretty uneventful year. That is a good thing.
”There were no major surprises and nothing out of the ordinary,” said Treasurer John Coffield. “However, that does not mean we did not accomplish a lot.
“The biggest impact that affected the taxpayer is the ability to pay their taxes online by utilizing the Treasurer’s website. This service started around the first of June last year. Therefore, people paying their second half taxes were able to use this service,” said Coffield.
His report continues:
Any major debit or credit card is accepted (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). A service fee of 2.25 percent of the total amount will be added to your transaction. You can also pay using eCheck. You will need your bank’s routing number and your checking account number. The fee for using this service is a flat $1.25 per transaction. Up to three parcels can be paid at one time and is considered one transaction. Payments can be made 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Making payments online is a way of life for a lot of people. We are pleased to be able offer this service to our taxpayers and give them additional options to pay their taxes. Both real estate and manufactured housing taxes can be paid online.
For many people, taxes are up slightly from last year. We mailed out just under 25,000 real estate tax notices on Jan. 8, 2020, and first half taxes totaling more than $25,000,000 were due on February 14. Second half taxes will be due on July 20 and you should get your bills by the middle of June.
It is important to pay your taxes prior to these dates to keep from being charged penalties and interest. If you have not yet paid your first half taxes, I would urge you to contact this office at once to see what we can do to assist you. We do not like to foreclose on delinquent properties but, in fairness to all taxpayers, we cannot accept people ignoring their obligations.
During the past year, the Federal Reserve reversed their trend of raising interest rates and actually lowered rates by 0.25 percent on three separate occasions. Due to the various investment instruments that the county is allowed to invest excess funds in, we were able to substantially increase our interest income over the past couple of years. In 2017, our interest income was $272,000.
For 2018, that amount came to just shy of $530,000. Last year was over $800,000. By wisely investing county money, we are able to provide additional services to the people of Shelby County without using money from taxes and other fees. Based on the fact that rates are lower, it might prove difficult to continue this trend in 2020. We will, however, do our best to continue safe investing and maximizing returns.
The Treasurer’s office is also heavily involved with the Shelby County Land Reutilization Corporation, also known as the Land Bank. Federal money for this program has come to an end but we will continue to do our best to remove abandoned and blighted property from our landscape.
Our office will continue to help all taxpayers in any way we can. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m.to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Friday. Our website is www.shelbycountytreasurer.com and our main phone number is 937-498-7281. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns that you may have. We hope you have a great 2020.
