Billing
“You can’t tell them they need to go buy new software,” she said. “I sent them a paper statement, and we never got anymore complaints.” Ballard said her office incurred no extra expense to implement its
electronic billing system. When she took office in 2011, she in- structed her staff to gather phone numbers and email addresses for every taxpayer they encountered. Tey had accumulated a large database of contacts by the time her office partnered with INA in 2012 to issue an email blast to taxpayers letting them know the tax books were open. Tey sent email reminders midway through the year. “Tat’s all we could do at the time because the legislation hadn’t been passed yet,” Bal- lad said, referring to House Bill 1023. Ballard said her county typically mails nearly 68,000 tax statements each year. At the request of taxpayers, 5,009 of those state- ments were sent via email this year, saving the county $11,220 in paper and postage costs.
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“And it’s going to grow,” Ballard said of the savings. “Everyday some- one signs up for e-statements. Not just one person, but several people. Tis is going to be a gift that keeps on giving.” Miller said she continues to get emails from taxpayers who want to opt in — and those emails aren’t coming from just the youngest of taxpayers. “You know, the really older generation does not even use computers. We know we are not going to connect with them,” she said. But she estimates that Sebastian County taxpayers well into their 60s are participating in the e-billing program. “If they are familiar with computers, they will accept it,” she said.
Computers are the “way of the
world” now, Buckner said. If a collector’s goal is to save taxpayer dollars, offer customers a more
convenient way to pay, and increase collections, then electronic billing is the right move, she said. “Are you part of the future, or are you part of the past?” she said.
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COUNTY LINES, SPRING 2014
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