Nov 23, 2004 By Paul Sunyak 4 min read

Hoping to take advantage of an opportunity that avails itself only once every four years, Fayette County Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink intends to propose a change that would lower the cost of collecting county taxes. Zimmerlink wants to alter the 3.5 percent commission rate that Fayette automatically pays 39 tax collectors for collecting county real estate and per capital taxes. That rate means that for every $100 in county taxes they collect, tax collectors earn $3.50, many times simply for processing a check.

The county commissioners must approve any change in compensation rate or method by Feb. 15, 2005, so anyone running for election or re-election as a tax collector next year would know what compensation level to expect when they would take office in January 2006.

Zimmerlink plans to bring the matter up at the special commissioners’ meeting scheduled for Dec. 1 at 9 a.m., and is asking interested tax collectors and members of the public to speak to the commissioners at that time.

Zimmerlink then intends to bring the matter up for a formal vote at the commissioners’ meeting scheduled for Dec. 10 at 9 a.m., when they will be unveiling the proposed 2005 county budget.

“What I want to do is give the opportunity for the (county) Tax Collectors’ Association and anyone else to come to the public meeting (Dec. 1) and provide their comments,” said Zimmerlink. “I’ll take those into consideration before publicly making my proposal.

“My proposal is not going to negatively affect our county tax collection process. It’s the same amount of work, the same procedure – just at a more reasonable rate.”

Zimmerlink said her proposal for change would offer two other things – a more cost-effective approach to collecting taxes and a potential savings for taxpayers – and is in keeping with one of her 2003 campaign promises.

“One of the things that I said I would like to bring to county government is a new approach. And my approach is to make county government be as cost effective as possible,” said Zimmerlink. “This is a once-in-four-years opportunity and we should not pass it up.”

Zimmerlink said that the 2004 county budget earmarked $251,713 for tax collector commissions, plus another $19,256 toward their Social Security benefits. She believes that the county can accomplish its tax collection for less than a quarter-million dollars per year.

When the Herald-Standard examined this issue in early 2003, it found that Fayette’s 3.5 percent commission rate was the most costly method of collecting county taxes when compared to surrounding counties.

That analysis found that Washington and Greene counties don’t even use tax collectors to collect county taxes, instead performing that work through their respective county treasurer’s offices, which had respective yearly budgets of $413,138 and $160,063.

It also found that Westmoreland County used a sliding scale to compensate tax collectors, paying them 1.2 percent on the first $400,000 they collect and decreasing that percentage to .53 percent on anything over $800,000.

Neighboring Somerset County was found to use an entirely different system, paying tax collectors a flat $2.25 fee for every tax bill they collected, regardless of size. Had that system been employed in Fayette, the yearly cost was estimated at $175,175, assuming a 100 percent collection rate that was even greater than the traditional 85 percent collection rate on which county budgets are predicated.

Zimmerlink said she recently asked the Pennsylvania Economy League, which was performing a tax collector analysis on 11 central Pennsylvania counties, to add Fayette to that mix. She said the results showed that Fayette’s average cost per collected tax bill was $4.05, the highest in the group.

She said that Lancaster County’s 75 cents per collected tax bill was the lowest cost. The economy league study also included Berks, Blair, Cambria, Centre, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming and York counties, said Zimmerlink.

Within Fayette County, Zimmerlink said that figures supplied by the Tax Assessment Office showed that in the 39 municipalities that use tax collectors, the highest tax collection cost average was $9.15 per bill while the lowest was $2.26 per bill.