Vermilion County officials are working to get this year’s real estate tax bills out. And County Treasurer Darren Duncan says they should be in the mail soon. ‘’Assuming it goes all well, it is very possible that the County Clerk will wrap up their part of it next week, and then it will be sent over. It takes us a couple of weeks. Like I said it takes a week just to sort and stuff the envelopes. (I) don’t want to rush it, print a bunch of tax bills and then look at them and say that one’s wrong,’’ says Duncan.
So the bills are expected to be out by early next month. Duncan notes the county has converted to an entirely new system this year to prepare the bills. And he is hopeful there will be no glitches getting them out, especially with some school districts running on fumes.
‘’The fiscal year for schools starts July 1st. And so, with the state not paying all their bills like they ought to – schools start having new expenses in July. And so that’s one of the reasons we would like to see that tax bill date get moved up earlier in the year. So that we can get it (new tax money) disbursed to them in July – rather than still be collecting it in July.’’
Once the bills go out, taxpayers will have 30 days to pay their first installment.
There are 104 taxing districts in Vermilion County. And Duncan says his office handles 88 checkbooks covering those districts. And the County Treasurer added that as soon as his office collects the money from those bills it is disbursed to taxing bodies as quickly as possible.
The Treasurer was a guest on WDAN Radio’s Newsmakers program Thursday (June 8th, 2017). If you missed the program you can listen to it by going to the podcast section on the homepage of VermilionCountyFirst.com.
