Taxing Matters
By: Cheryl E. Johnson, PCC Galveston
Co. Tax Assessor Collector cheryl. E. Johnson @ co. galveston. tx. us
A Whirlwind of a Year!
Another whirlwind fiscal year has neared its end in the County Tax Office which means a new beginning and a new tax year. Annually, I report to my team accomplishments from the prior and goals for the new fiscal year. Through 14 years, the accomplishments have been many and frankly, this last year has been pretty amazing!
Nearly every property owner, motor vehicle or boat owner and many businesses will benefit from our newest initiatives. A brand new partnership with League City( to collect its Public Improvement District— PID fees), will impact only 2,000 this year but will open the door to new partnerships with other local governments in the future.
And then, there are the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unclaimed refunds on their way to“ found” former property owners and another $ 67,000 posted online just last week just waiting to be claimed! Everyone is familiar with the Comptroller’ s annual push to return billions in unclaimed property to Texans. On a much smaller scale are the more than 800 property tax refund checks that were returned to the County Tax Office over the last 14 years by USPS. A valiant effort over the summer by the Property Tax Department team to locate the owners of these funds is nearing completion and, best of all, a SOP( standard operating procedure) implemented to make this a monthly task. Visit www. galcotax. com and click on the green Unclaimed Tax Refunds button. The list is sorted by city( or area) then name. Staking a claim locally is much easier than from the State so check it out every month!
After just one year, the partnership with Texas Parks and Wildlife both restored staffing in the County Tax Office to
pre-Hurricane Ike levels and increased revenue to the county far above the cost of the additional half time position. Just think – a new government program that was not only selffunded but profitable! Spread the word – there are 15,000 boat owners in Galveston County and we served less than 20 % in the first year, thus the potential is great! When we perform the service, local fees are earned that help reduce our overhead( read‘ lowering your tax burden).
Behind the scenes improvements( achieving our goal to streamline operations through implementation of new technologies) included remote capture restored six hours / day to over-the-counter-service without increasing staffing AND automation of vehicle registration renewal processing also freed up the branch team to focus on providing superior customer services.
Motor vehicle and water vessel dealerships will soon receive notification of a new online system for their prepayment of escrowed property taxes. Our hope with this system is to facilitate their operations through simplified record keeping allowing them to spend more time selling and less time in the office( or my office) paying us!
Our legislation has been drafted and we have begun“ shopping” those with high hopes of making both simple and major reforms to the Texas Property Tax Code. Follow me on Facebook for additional information and check out the website( under the Press Releases and Important Information link).
Also under that link is a simple to follow power point show( Navigating Property Taxes When Owning a Home- Avoiding Tax Gaffes) designed to help new property owners be responsible and proactive with regard to their taxes. I will continue to develop information that benefits you just tell me what you need!
Keep an eye out for that annual love letter – it too has a new and improved look and – I hope it does not deliver too much love!
MOMENTUM / October 2018 14