Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Tax bill send date up in air

Gerald Garner Jr. El Defensor Chieftain Editor

Two months after winning her writ of mandamus wrangle with the Socorro County Commission, County Treasurer Genevie Baca says she's not sure when the county's 2008 tax bills will be ready for distribution.

In September, District Court Judge Edmund "Ted" Kase ruled in favor of Baca and her writ of mandamus, which sought to compel the county commission to provide her with the necessary tools to accurately generate tax bills for county residents.

Although the judge's ruling didn't sit well with county brass, Baca contends it was the only way to ensure that taxes are collected and distributed to appropriate entities as intended and required by law.

In her Nov. 17 correspondence, Baca reports that DataNow has upgraded the treasurer's computer system from the antiquated MS-DOS platform to a more user-friendly Windows version.

"The pro-rata distribution of collected taxes to the agencies we collect for is correct now," Baca said.

The conversion of remaining reports and the generation of new reports continues, thus moving Baca's office closer to compliance with state statutes and reporting requirements, the treasurer noted.

As the writ of mandamus saga was wrapping up in court, Baca said she foresaw troubles in meeting the mid-fall tax bill distribution date and filed for an extension with the State Taxation and Revenue Department.

That department, according to Baca, granted an extension — from Oct. 1, 2008 to Jan. 15, 2009 — to the Assessor's Office for completion of an Applogix interface file for the 2008 Tax Roll.

"The 'Tax Roll' contains the data required (assessments and certified tax rates) to generate tax bills so the date of the final Assessor's 'Tax Roll' will determine the approximate date that the 2008 tax bills will be mailed," Baca wrote in her release.

Once that date has been determined, local taxpayers can expect that the first half of payment of taxes will be due 10 days after the mailing postmark with those bills become delinquent 30 days after the postmarked date. The second half due dates, Baca reports, have not changed.

In related news, Baca's office was notified that the Taxation and Revenue Department's Property Tax Division will conduct public property tax auction sale sometime within the next 45-60 days.

"Please come in an pay in full before they start their 'Title Clearance' process," Baca urged.

Baca can be reached for further information at 575-835-1701.

ggarner@dchieftain.com

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