Whitley Co. taxpayers getting two extra weeks to pay with 2 percent discount

Whitley County property owners will be getting an extra two weeks this year to pay their tax bills with a 2 percent discount.

The Whitley County Board of Education held a special meeting late Monday afternoon to set tax rates for the 2019-2020 school year, which was one of the final hurdles needed in order to print tax bills early.

Superintendent John Siler said that he was recently contacted by Whitley County Clerk Kay Schwartz, who informed him that she could have the property tax bills printed early and out to the public by mid-September if the school district could gets its tax rates officially set by Aug. 28.

Siler said that after Schwartz contacted him, he soon began to contact board members to see if they could hold a special meeting prior to Aug. 28 deadline in order to set the tax rate, which is what prompted Monday’s special called meeting.

“This will give 20,000 plus taxpayers in our county two weeks extended time to get that 2 percent discount,” Siler added.

Schwartz confirmed Tuesday afternoon that she had received the tax rates for all of the taxing districts.

“I especially want to thank all of the districts for working hard to make this happen for the taxpayers of Whitley County. A couple of the districts had to call special meetings to get this done, and we really appreciate their cooperation,” she added.

Schwartz said that the tax bills are expected to be mailed to local residences Sept. 11-12. Normally the tax bills are mailed out by Oct. 1.

Starting Sept. 16, residents will be able to pay their property tax bills with a 2 percent discount through Oct. 31. From Nov. 1 – Dec. 31, the tax bills will be payable at their face value.

Starting Jan. 1, 2020, there is a 5 percent penalty that is added to all unpaid tax bills.

“They can pay their tax bills for three and one-half months before any penalty starts,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz noted that the county has only been able to get the tax bills out this early once before.

“It isn’t that the districts do not cooperate. It is how quickly Frankfort gets their tax information sheet out to them with the compensating rate suggestion. Then meetings have to be called or set. A lot of things go into preparing to print the tax bills. That does take time,” she added.

School tax rates

Siler noted during Monday’s meeting that the Whitley County Board of Education was taking the state recommended compensating rates, which are rates designed to provide taxing districts with roughly the same amount of tax revenue that the districts received the prior year.

The board voted Monday to set the real estate tax rate at 44.1 cents per $100 of assessed value for the 2019-2020 school year. The rate last year was 44.7 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The board also voted to set the 2019-2020 personal property tax rate at 45.0 cents per $100 of assessed value. The rate was 44.7 cents per $100 of assessed value last year.

Chief Financial Officer Alicia Logan noted that real estate property assessments were up, while assessments on personal property went down this year.