Mohave County going virtual to save money
 
By David Bell
Today's News-Herald
 
Lee Fabrizio wants to make sure his office joins the 21st century.

The Mohave County treasurer is in the process of getting tax billing online and will follow that with the option to pay taxes online as well.

"What we'll do is have the tax bill online so anyone with a computer can download their tax bill as a PDF file and they can send that in with a check," said Fabrizio. "It costs us 55 cents every time we mail a tax bill and I'd estimate that going online will save the county about $30,000 to start."

The computer program to get the billing online is in the final programming stages and should be ready for testing in a few weeks. In the meantime Fabrizio said the office is working on reducing the size of the printed billing and moving to black and white instead of color to again save money. And to maximize interest earnings, the Treasurer's Office is working with a new financial institution - Chase Bank - to transfer tax bills into county accounts as soon as possible.

"Our goal is to save about half the time when it comes to our deposits," Fabrizio said, explaining that his office will be using ACH (Automated Clearing House) transfers similar to the automatic deposit many people use for payroll checks and utility bills.

All efforts to expand the department's use of emerging and existing technology is being coordinated through the county's IT department rather than go to an outside consulting firm. And at the request of Fabrizio, the county's Office of Management and Budget is conducting a study of processes employed by the Treasurer's Office with the goal of streamlining employee efforts.

Fabrizio was in Lake Havasu City last week.

"We're also looking at extending the Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City offices hours," he said. "Because that involves staff, it all depends on the budget that's approved by the Board of Supervisors."

Back in the Kingman office, Fabrizio said his office is working on two major issues: Finding a assistant to take over when Dave Chevalier retires this fall and working on the tax collections coming out of Colorado City.

Property owners in the northern Mohave County city were delinquent $1.2 million when the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) ordered members to stop paying taxes.

Facing eviction, some of the delinquent payments have been trickling in and Fabrizio is working with other county agencies to make sure that those that pay are not evicted.

"Because the church owns a lot of the land, some of these people paid the church and the church never paid the taxes. So we're working on making sure the people get the proper credit," Fabrizio said. "We've collected about half the delinquent taxes so far."

- The reporter may be contacted at dbell@havasunews.com
 
havasunews.com
Originally published Monday, May 29, 2006
 
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