The end of next month is the expected time that Jackson County Treasurer Kathy Hohenstreiter said she hopes to have this year’s property tax bills in the mail.
Property taxes were delayed again this year because of assessment delays prompted by the consolidation of the assessors office. Last year, at Governor Mitch Daniel’s urging, township assessors were eliminated and all of their former duties were consolidated with the county treasurer.
Other counties are experiencing similar delays.
“Values for Jackson County taxes are being reviewed by state officials,” Hohenstreiter said late last week. “At this time I am not able to tell taxpayers exactly when the auditor’s office will be receiving the tax rates for our county but based on the length of approval for other counties and barring any additional problems, property tax bills could be going out to owners by the end of September.”
Hohenstreiter said she will be seeking permission for Jackson County to have a single due date for this year’s tax collection on Dec. 31 of this year.
She suggested that taxpayers go ahead and prepay their property taxes based on last year’s amount.
“Prepaying will allow the entities of county government to be able to request advance draws and will lessen the strain on the taxpayer of the entire year being due at one time,” said the treasurer.
Pre-payments on advance taxes may be done in the treasurer’s office at the courthouse or may be mailed to the treasurer at 111 S. Main St., Suite 124, Brownstown, IN 47220.
“The public should be aware that it is the responsibility of the treasurer’s office to send out tax bills and collect payments. Our office does not, however, have the capability to hasten the process so that late billing dates cease to occur,” said Hohenstreiter, adding that the treasurer is the last in a line of officials—from assessor to auditor to state—that does their work only after others have completed theirs.
For questions about this year’s property taxes, Hohenstreiter can be reached at 358-6125.
