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June 6, 2010

Revenue office providing more services

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — A number of recent changes at the Cullman County Revenue Commissioner’s office will expand payment options and give residents more choices in conducting their transactions both at the office and its branch locations, as well as from any computer with an internet connection.

Heading up the new features is a new website—www.cullmanrevenuecommissioner.com—intended to offer customers tag and tax information without their having to come by the courthouse or pick up the phone.

Hours of operation at the revenue office’s courthouse location have also changed, expanding payment hours from 7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. The Baileyton & Dodge City satellite offices have the same hours, but are open four days per week, from Monday-Thursday.

The schedule changes were not made permanent until Friday, after the revenue office had given the new hours a quiet trial run to be sure the changes made sense, said Revenue Commissioner Barry Willingham. The new hours affect only revenue office employees, he added.

“We started at the courthouse last week as a pilot before really advertising it to make sure it would work,” Willingham said. “Half our staff is off on Monday and the other half on Friday, and they rotate every two weeks. The satellite offices will begin on June 21; however, we will be closed on Fridays. 

“I discussed the plan to go to the new schedule with all of the commissioners and the Probate Judge, and the commission felt it was a great idea. The Probate Judge’s office opted to stay on their current eight-hour schedule,” he added.

Willingham said Friday the updated site offers a “dynamic way of accessing important tax information online.”

The new site offers customers the option of paying their tax bills using PayPal, a debit-or-credit card-funded payment service that facilitates internet transactions between customers and online vendors.

There is a price attached to the convenience of using the online method—a thirty-cent flat fee, plus a margin of 2.2 percent per transaction. Willingham noted that, by law, the county cannot subsidize the convenience of online debit, credit or PayPal transactions by using collected tax revenues to absorb the costs.

In any case, customer response during the first week has demonstrated a demand for the service, said Willingham. The revenue office processed 92 credit card transactions—totaling more than $9,000 in collections—during the service’s first week.

The website offers information about real and personal property tax collection, vehicle tag renewals and registration. Users can also find links to public records and county online mapping applications—including a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application featuring map views of parcels; customizable buffers and information on ownership and assessment value for each piece of land.

“Our online service allows citizens to search, view, and pay their property and vehicle tax bills from the convenience of their home or office,” Willingham said. “Citizens can pay online using any one of the four major credit cards. In addition, they can also print a copy of their tax bill and / or receipt, or request an address change using the website features.”

According to Willingham, the county wants to continue to upgrade its technological resources and improve services available to residents. “The county will continue to look for opportunities to make our citizen services more convenient while improving the efficiency of our tax office,” he said.

The new site was developed and will be maintained by Sturgis Web Services of Fort Mill, South Carolina. Pay Pal, a subsidiary of online retail auction site eBay, is the world’s largest secure Internet provider.



‰Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

 

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