Other counties collect taxes differently
What is common practice for Fayette County in terms of collection of the county property taxes isn’t necessarily the case for a pair of neighboring southwestern Pennsylvania counties. Although it is part of normal duties for the treasurer’s offices in Greene and Washington counties to collect the county property taxes, in Fayette County, the treasurer’s office only collects the tax for three of the county’s 42 municipalities.
In Greene and Washington counties, the treasurer’s offices are responsible for the collection of county property taxes for their respective municipalities while the office of Fayette County Treasurer Robert “Bobby” Danko only collects county property taxes for the cities of Uniontown and Connellsville and Ohiopyle Borough. The elected tax collectors for the county’s other municipalities handle collection of the tax themselves.
Dianne Rossini, chief deputy treasurer for Fayette County, said the office collects for the cities of Uniontown and Connellsville because they don’t have elected tax collectors, and for Ohiopyle Borough because of the small size of the municipality, but isn’t compensated separately for doing the job.
“We get no commission under the county code,” Rossini said.
In Washington County, Treasurer Francis L. King handles his job, including collecting county property taxes, with seven full-time employees and one part-time employee in addition to himself during tax season. For 2007, the office has a budget of $443,839, although King said they would likely come in under that by the end of this year. Through March, King said the office had collected $20 million, and he anticipates that figure will be about $25 million by the end of the year.
King’s office sends out bills on about 101,000 parcels for collection. Washington, like Fayette, is a Fourth Class county. King said he thinks counties that have the ability to collect the county taxes and don’t, would be “foolish not to.”
King said one problem with relying on local tax collectors to gather the county taxes occurs when only one payment per month is received.
“We collect it and the next day it is in the bank,” King said.
In Greene County, Treasurer Cory Grandel’s office includes Grandel and five other employees. Grandel said Greene County falls under the Venango Act in which his office is designated to collect the county property taxes directly from the taxpayers for the county’s 26 municipalities.
County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania executive director Douglas E. Hill previously said that the Venango Act, which empowers a dozen counties to use their treasurer’s office to collect county taxes if they choose, dates to the 1800s during a time when “special legislation” could be passed affecting only certain counties.
The state Constitution outlawed that selective practice in 1876, said Hill, but the Venango Law remained on the books. Hill said that CCAP holds the position that every county should have the same option, and the organization has tried to get a comprehensive bill to that effect passed in the state Legislature.
Additionally, Grandel said his office sells the fish and hunting licenses, bingo permits and dog licenses, as well as managing all the accounts for the county departments.
“My office is rather diverse,” Grandel said.
Grandel’s annual budget is about $161,000. The office collects on about 35,000 parcels of land, and the collection rate is more than 90 percent, Grandel said. In 2005, Grandel said his office collected $7,806,296 in county taxes, and in 2006, his office collected $8,801,355 in county taxes.