Tax bills delayed (06/20/08)

Property tax bills have been delayed again and likely will not be in the mail until after July.

Major delays in obtaining the county's tax rates have pushed property tax bills back even farther. County treasurer Robin Alberson predicted in May that bills would be out by "late June," a prediction that has been squashed due to jams in getting rates from the Department of Local Government Finance.

"It will probably not be even in July at this point," Alberson said. "We don't have the rates yet. We had to have the budget hearings first to get the rates. That's all we're waiting on now."

The DLGF was late in holding budget hearings this year, too. County auditor Nancy Culy met with DLGF officials Thursday to get approval for the county's 2008 budgets which Culy said was "very much behind." All departments except for the school budget were approved, since petitions had been filed for certain parts of those figures.

"This petition was collected last fall and the DLGF forgot about it and so it didn't get advertised," Culy said. "So now they have to have it July 1."

The July 1 hearing should bring budget discussions to a close and lead to the DLGF putting out Jay County's tax rates. For now, Alberson has to wait. She was hesitant to make any second predictions on the coming of those bills.

"After the July 1 hearing they'll have to have, so we'll know after that," she said. "So not in June or July."[[In-content Ad]]