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September 10, 2008

Appraisal District taking over Jacksonville property tax payments

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Claiming the change will result in fiscal savings and increased convenience for Jacksonville property owners, city officials announced last week that beginning Oct. 1, city property tax payments will be made to the Cherokee County Appraisal District — not to city hall.

“The city is collecting all its own property taxes right now, but as of the beginning of October, citizens will take their payments to the appraisal district,” said City Manager Mo Raissi. “I believe this is going to be more convenient for the citizens because they already have to go to Rusk to pay the county portion of their taxes and they have to go to the Appraisal District anyway to pay their school taxes. They have to go there anyway; now they can pay their city taxes there too and save themselves a trip here to City Hall.”

Convenience aside, Raissi said the main reason for the switch is economical. By allowing the Appraisal District to collect property tax payments, the city estimates it will be able to save about $50,000 a year.

“It is going to cost us less than one-third with them doing it than it would cost to continue doing it in-house. We are looking at it costing us about $20,000 a year compared to $70,000 a year — and that is $50,000 that doesn’t have to come from the citizens. That’s saving us a pretty good chunk,” he said. “We used to budget $10,000 a year just to do all the mailings, not to mention all the paperwork and personnel costs this will save us.”

However, the change will result in the elimination of one job position within the city.

Raissi said most other cities already have their Appraisal District collecting taxes for them. The cities of Rusk, Alto, Wells and New Summerfield also have CCAD handle their property taxes for them.

Once the change takes effect, the only local tax collections not handled by the Appraisal District will be Cherokee County and portions of the Bullard and Carlisle independent school districts.

The city had toyed with the idea numerous times before, but never went through with it.

“The Appraisal District has always been open to this, but it was the city’s idea. It was one of the ideas that came up during a budget meeting as we were brainstorming ideas to help the city save money,” Raissi said. “This is a part of the belt-tightening we are doing right now, and it’s an example of some of the forward thinking that the city is trying to do. We weighed our options and decided this was the best thing we could do for the citizens.”

The Cherokee County Appraisal District’s office is located in Rusk on the square at 107 E. Sixth St.

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