– Editorial – - State needs to modernize property tax collection
– Editorial –
By Editorial Board Paying property taxes in Wisconsin, is a chore that is made unnecessarily annoying, because of processes that haven’t kept up with commonplace financial business practices.
State lawmakers will soon begin the biennial budget process, and start the squabbling about ways to squander the state’s enviable $4.6 billion budget surplus, on special interest wish lists.
As they begin carving up the pie, Wisconsin taxpayers would be well-served, through an investment in updating the billing and collection system for property taxes.
Paying your property taxes is an aggravating experience at every step.
First, is the timing with tax bills arriving just days before Christmas each year, to put a damper on any holiday spirit you may have had. Then, you must either mail a check and hope the post office gets it delivered in time, or you must take the time during the business day, to go to your municipal clerk’s office or the county courthouse, to hand deliver your payment.
If you are among the many who break the payment into two parts, you must remember to mail or go to the courthouse, to pay the second half in July.
The system seems to have been designed to make it as onerous and annoying as possible, to pay your tax bill. It doesn’t have to be this way, though.
Utilities, insurances, lenders and other large annual expenses, have all figured out ways to streamline the billing and collection process, recognizing that creating efficiencies saves time and money on the front end, while also improving collection compliance rates.
The major hang-up in implementing modernization efforts, is from lack of resources. County governments would sooner put local tax dollars toward roads and roofs, than toward upgrades to the tax collection system, to do things like implementing electronic invoices where emails would replace thousands of printed bills or creating a way for people to set up monthly ACH auto-payments, like many do with their electricity and gas bills.
This is a level of technology that has been commonplace in the private sector for decades. The major hold-up to bringing these to government level, is money and the lack of it.
If you ask any member of a county finance committee, they will universally tell you that money is tight and there are many demands for every dollar available. Utilizing state surplus funds would allow that necessary investment in upgrades to take place, without placing an additional burden on taxpayers and actually save local taxpayer dollars, through improving efficiencies.
Just the long-term potential savings on postage and staff time of stuffing envelopes by switching to an electronic invoicing, is worth the investment.
Wisconsin leaders should use surplus funds to prioritize investment in creating government efficiencies, rather than rushing to spend it on new pet projects or unsustainable tax cuts.
