The Pulaski County treasurer's office has started sending out property tax bills to county residents that total about $460 million.
Property taxes are due Oct. 15 and are subject to a 10 percent delinquency charge after that.
That $460 million total is $13 million more than the $447 million sought for collections last year, an increase tied to new construction and increases in the portion of taxes that can be collected from real estate. Under state law, increases on taxes on real estate are limited in a given year, regardless of the property's assessed value.
The treasurer's office usually collects about 97 percent of what it bills. If the taxes are fully collected, two-thirds of that revenue -- $307 million -- will go to the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts, and about $62.8 million will go to the general funds for the county and cities.
About $15.5 million will go to the Central Arkansas Library System and other libraries, and $20 million will go to road funds for the county and cities. About $4.2 million will be funneled to Arkansas Children's Hospital through Pulaski County. Little Rock, North Little Rock and Maumelle will receive $10.7 million in pensions for police and fire workers.
The treasurer's office on Thursday began sending out notices by email that residents could pay their bills starting Sunday. The 364,896 paper bills will be mailed out within the next week or so, Chief Deputy Treasurer Bentley Hovis said.
This is the second year the county has sent out electronic bills. Although it has 72,000 email addresses from people who have paid electronically in the past, only 1,238 bills -- 0.3 percent -- will be email-only. Most people receiving electronic bills have not opted out of the paper bills.
Electronic billing is cheaper for the county than paper billing, which requires postage. The treasurer's office budgeted $200,000 for postage this year.
Although paying online is often more convenient, paying in person is still cheaper when accounting for the surcharge for processing the payments through Arkansas.gov.
That surcharge, which varies depending on the type of payment, affects all county governments using Arkansas.gov for tax payments but goes toward the software provider and not county governments using it.
"I hate that," Saline County Tax Collector Joy Ballard said.
For electronic checks, the surcharge may be $3 or $5, depending on the amount the person has to pay in taxes, Ballard said. The surcharge is a certain percentage for people choosing to pay with a credit card, which can often be much higher than the surcharge for electronic checks.
Many people pay in spite of the charge, though, Ballard said.
"You would not believe the amount of people that use credit cards, just for the convenience," she said.
Saline County has also been sending out electronic bills.
Ballard said her office will send out 4,737 electronic statements this year and 61,833 paper statements, similar to the proportion last year. It'll save Saline County $17,004.
Hovis said it's premature to tell what the financial effect on the county has been so far for the 1,238 email-only bills, given the small number.
"I think what's encouraging is the number of profiles we got set up," he said, referencing the 6,080 online profiles created by residents on the treasurer's payment portal.
He said residents opting for both online and print bills seems strange but is not surprising.
Cindy Walker, Columbia County's tax collector and president of the Arkansas Tax Collector's Association, said many counties are looking at doing electronic billing but that not all of them have the resources to do so.
Walker said she's planning to send out electronic bills in Columbia County, and she encourages counties to look into it.
"Save on that postage," she said.
Metro on 03/02/2015