Saturday, October 12, 2024
By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – Starting with the 2021 property taxex due in 2022, the village will be taking over the first installment collections.
The Ashwaubenon village board decided last month to discontinue having the Brown County treasurer’s office handle that service.
This is because of the implementation of a $1.60 fee per parcel to be charged by the county to villages and towns which do not want to process first installment collections.
County Treasurer Paul Zeller initially announced he planned to discontinue the first payment collections, beginning with the 2021 property taxes, which will be collected starting in December and running through next January.
However, after municipal officials objected, Zeller agreed to what he called a “compromise” for his office to continue those first installment collections, which he said municipalities could be required to do under state law.
A resolution approved last month by the county board authorized charging the per-parcel fee to towns and villages agreeing to have that service handled by the treasurer’s office, which also will have additional staffing for tax collection help by switching a limited-term employee (LTE) from a full-time equivalent (FTE) of .6 at $12.50 per hour for 1,260 hours to an LTE with an FTE of 1.21 at $15 per hour for 2,520 hours.
Ashwaubenon Village President Mary Kardoskee asked the county to continue the first installment collections for at least another year as it had in the past without a fee.
Kardoskee appeared before both the county’s Administration Committee and the full board to request the extension, while officials from other municipalities in the county supported her effort.
Village Manager Joel Gregozeski said having the county continue to handle both first and second installment payments “consolidates payment locations, expedites the process for taxpayers, and at the end of the day, it really saves everybody some money, because you have one entity conducting business that every other municipality would have to provide otherwise.”
Though the treasurer’s office agreed to handle first installment collections for a fee with the 2021 property taxes, Gregozeski said there’s no guarantee that will happen in future years.
“For the number of parcels we have… it will cost us over $12,000 for the county to provide that service for us,” he said. “In a review of their offer – their contingency, if you will – we felt that it would be best suited for us if we would just take that first installment collection here at the village hall, much like all the other municipalities will likely be doing, because of that added cost of $1.60 per parcel.”
Gregozeski said the county will still prepare and mail out tax bills with the village collecting first installments.
“We would pay the county much as we have in the past to prepare the tax bill and mail it, but then when it comes to the collection of property taxes in December and January, we would handle it here at the village hall,” he said.
Gregozeski said there likely will be some additional costs for the village to handle first installment collections, as well as needing temporary help to process payments.
He said he also hopes to establish a relationship with a variety of financial institutions to see if they would be interested in receiving property tax payments to reduce the amount of in-person traffic into the village hall.
“It appears, anyway, that the county struggled to maintain relationships with financial institutions for a variety of reasons,” Gregozeski said. “We feel that we have the ability with our current relationships with our banks and credit unions that we should be able to have that ability here in Ashwaubenon.”
He said second installment payments will continue to be collected by the county with the village receiving first installments or payment in full.
For those mailing their property tax payments, Gregozeski said first installments or full payments will now have to be sent directly to the village.
“The second installment has to get mailed to the county,” he said.
The board’s motion approving the property tax bill agreement has the condition in which any future revisions to the agreement be brought back to the board for consideration and possible approval.
Under the agreement, the village will pay the county actual postal costs, based on the number of tax bills mailed.
