County collects more property taxes
Friday, April 27, 2007 11:45 AM EDT article source
The figures for the 2007 first-half tax collections are in. During the collection period that ended March 2, Lawrence County tax collections amounted to $13,491,329.64.
“That is higher than the tax collection for the first half of any previous years,” Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham said. “We were within $2 million of collecting the entire amount collected six years ago.”
The largest piece of the property tax pie, approximately $9 million, goes to the area’s school districts, many of which have levies and bond issues in place to pay for new schools. Another $2 million, roughly, goes into the Lawrence County general fund. The remainder is split among townships and other service agencies, such as the Lawrence County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
Burcham said approximately 10 percent, or $1.368 million, of the taxes monies collected during the first-half period flowed through the various banks that have agreed to take tax payments. Liberty Federal Savings Bank in Ironton collected the most taxes of any individual bank, $182,000, but U.S. Banks as a whole took the top spot in tax collections among the participating financial institutions.
Burcham said a program that will allow property owners to escrow taxes should be available for tax payers later this year and another program that will allow tax payments with credit cards should be ready for use early next year.