Senate Bill 275 would replace existing state law that requires county councils to set up property tax payment plans proposed by county treasurers. Under the new law, all counties would be required to accept both lump sum payments and installment plans.
In Monroe County, residents can already set up plans to pay their property taxes over time, said Monroe County Treasurer Cathy Smith at the Jan. 11 Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting.
“We’re trying to make things user-friendly because we just bill once a year but don’t set up formal payment plans,” Smith said.
Those informal plans can be set up in weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly installments. Email reminders are available for each payment increment.
“I’ll take payments any time, any way,” Smith said.
Additionally, the treasurer announced, a meeting to cover how she invested the money the county collected would be held at the next meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners.
She said when the money is collected, it is “sort of like putting it in a bathtub.” At the end of the year, when it is disbursed, she takes money from the “bathtub” and distributes it to cities and towns in the county.
“In collecting all these property taxes, I have to have the money invested for the duration of the time that I hold that money and, in addition to that, any county monies I hold in trusts for the county itself,” Smith noted.
The county treasurer’s investment policies follow four rules.
“Basically, safety first, liquidity second, and return third,” Smith said. Finally, every investment must be double insured. That is, it must be covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the state version of the FDIC, the Public Deposit Insurance Fund.
The combination of rules generally means low interest money market accounts because they are safe and have high liquidity.
Smith will be talking about her investment policies at greater length during the Jan. 25 meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. That meeting will include the annual meeting of the Finance Board. It will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Nat U. Hill Meeting Room at the Monroe County Courthouse.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.