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Trentmann stated that all tax bills were mailed out and residents should now have them.

“So if you don’t have one, try to call in or look it up online,” he said.

The collector’s office has experienced lines to pay personal property and real estate tax bills reach up to 35 or 40 people, though they have not been out the door, as in past years, Trentmann said. In a normal year, they would have less than a week before the Dec. 31 deadline. But, due to delays in bills being issued for the transition of county IT services from AQM and NOC, the deadline has now been moved to January 15.

“That’s pretty average for this time of year,” Trentmann said of the lines.

Trentmann explained that every tax bill sent out included the Jan. 15 deadline. Trentmann suggested that people who pay taxes should be aware of this change. “Some people are still going to pay by the 31st anyway,” he said.

Trentmann did not have accurate figures as to how much tax has been collected so he could not provide them with the latest figures. His office collected $11 million in November. This number was significantly lower than previous years due to the delay in receiving information.

The Franklin County Clerk previously reported that $130 million in 2022 taxes was owed to 67 public agencies in the county. However, 30,000 accounts were paid since Nov. 22nd. There were 105,000 unpaid bills. Most mortgage lenders had submitted payment.

More people paid their taxes online this year, with mail payments unavailable until the bills were sent by the county’s printer Dec. 9.

“The online payments are significantly higher than they have been in the past,” Trentmann said. “We are definitely taking more payments per day. It’s hard to compare to anything, because of what’s happened this year. Daily totals are up, but that is only because we haven’t been collecting.”

Taxpayers still must use a web browser to pay, since the county’s payment app is still not available.

While they did not talk about the technology issues that kept county tax information from being sent to the printer until Nov. 22, when it normally starts collecting around Nov. 1, commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting again discussed complaints they have received about the county’s printing contractor, PacWest, being located in Stockton, California.

“To be able to print those tax bills is a large responsibility, and you have to be bonded to preserve the integrity and protect the taxpayers in Franklin,” Presiding Commissioner Tim Brinker said near the end of the meeting. “We didn’t have a bid come in from The Missourian that met the criteria, otherwise we would have gone local with that.”

According to Tim Payne (Director of Print Operations), the Missourian Media Group does NOT print government tax bills. 

Brinker added that they have the issue “nipped in the bud.”

“We’re grateful that the process is working and that people now have until the 15th of January to pay their taxes,” he said.