Hamilton County: Despite economic woes, county tax collections up

Despite declining state sales tax revenues, Hamilton County has collected about $6.5 million more in property taxes so far this year than collected by the same time last year.

“When push comes to shove, people are going to pay their taxes,” said Trustee Carl Levi, who’s in charge of property tax collection for the county. “They don’t have to go out and buy things, but they’re going to pay their taxes to protect their home.”

Mr. Levi said property tax collections were down until earlier this month, when mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. paid its bill of about $8 million.

December is one of the two busiest months in terms of property tax collections. Many people pay before the end of the year so they can claim their payments on their federal income taxes.

The other big month is February, the last month taxpayers can pay before they are penalized.

In June, when the Hamilton County Commission passed the 2008-09 budget, county officials were expecting about a $2.5 million increase in property tax revenue, according to budget documents. But Hamilton County Schools Chief Financial Officer Tommy Kranz said the school system isn’t banking on that growth.

“At the end of the day, our property tax revenues in 2009 will approximately be equal to fiscal year 2008,” he told county commissioners last week.

Mr. Kranz went on to say 2010 and 2011 may not bring much growth either, though he noted that it is too early to make solid predictions just yet.

County Finance Administrator Louis Wright said he agrees that it’s too early to tell just how property tax revenues will shake out, but said he disagreed with the assertion that property tax revenue would be flat.

Mr. Wright said county officials were expecting a decrease in sales tax collections, however.

“We’ve still got some time in the year to make some adjustments,” Mr. Wright said.

Sales taxes account for about 7 percent of the county budget, while property taxes make up about 63 percent of the budget.

State sales tax collections for November were down 13 percent over last year, officials have said.