Last Updated on September 14, 2015 – 10:28 PM CDT
When the Sherman County Appraisal District told the Moore County Hospital District it had until 5 p.m. on Monday to submit its 2015 approved tax rate or else it would have to find another collector, there was one problem, kind of a big one: The tax rate won’t be approved until the MCHD Board of Directors vote on it at their next meeting Sept. 23.
So at its meeting Monday, the Moore County Commissioners Court amended its collection contract with MCHD to collect taxes from the part of Sherman County the district serves. Moore County Tax Assessor-Collector Nikki McDonald told the commissioners she had spoken with MCHD CEO Jeff Turner and the Sherman County appraiser. Turner, she said, couldn’t give Sherman County a tax rate that hadn’t been voted on by his board of directors, and Sherman County was firm on the deadline because they have to get their statements to the firm that prints them in order to get them out by Oct. 1.
“Sherman County offers a 3-2-1 discount, so they have to get their statements out before we do,” McDonald said.
The 3-2-1 discount refers to a 3-percent discount Sherman County offers to its taxpayers if they pay in October, a 2-percent discount if they pay November, and a 1-percent discount if they pay in December. Moore County doesn’t offer that, so it’s not under the gun to get statements out as quickly as Sherman County. Also, Moore County prints their statements, McDonald said, eliminating the need to conform to another firm’s printing schedule.
Moore County will process an additional 4,600 parcels by taking on Sherman County’s hospital district’s taxes, but no adjustments to the budget will have to be made.
“I’m not using all the postage I had in there [the budget], and we have enough in office supplies to print the statements,” McDonald said. “It might up the collection costs for the hospital district next year.”
Commissioner Lynn Cartrite said employee time must be calculated in the cost, and McDonald said she will be working on that.
“I just want to make it clear that neither I nor Jeff went looking for this,” McDonald said. “The hospital district was given an ultimatum. Either they get their rates to Sherman County by Sept. 14 or they would have to find someone else to do their collection.”