Tax collections come in under average

By Melinda L. Lucas

As expected, tax collections for local entities were down considerably as of the Jan. 31 deadline for 2022 taxes, according to chief appraiser Clayton Snyder at the Shackelford County Central Appraisal District (CAD) office.

Even counting the eligible payments coming in for the first couple of weeks in February, the collection rate for all six entities was 81.48 percent, compared with over 90 percent for most years at the same time.

Official CAD reports show that $7,686.224 of the $9,433,878 total levy, compared with just under 93 percent at the same time last year.

Snyder said there are two major items holding back collection rates.

“For some jurisdictions, there is a lawsuit over a  windfarm,” the chief appraiser explained. “The windfarm corporation has 427,500 in outstanding assessments at the end of January.”

Snyder said Tuesday that he had not received requested updates on the case from the district’s attorneys.

The second item is a missing payment from several AEP divisions amounting to $678,789, which affects all jurisdictions.

“We are aware that some other collecting districts have been missing these payments as well, leading us to believe the payment could be lost in the mail,” Snyder said. “We have made  attempts to find a contact for the various divisions of AEP to inquire about the payments, but we have not been successful  in any of those attempts.”

He added that he is expecting the notice of late taxes to make its way to the correct  department to resolve the matter.

“When you take both those large items into consideration, the adjusted collection rate would be 93.2 percent overall,” Snyder said. “But since we don’t know the outcome of the lawsuit, if you take only the missing AEP payment into consideration, the adjusted tcollection rate would be 88.6 percent overall.”

The chief appraiser also reported that CAD personnel recently sent out rendition notices and some of those are beginning to come back, with a cutoff date of April 15, unless taxpayers request a 15-day extension in writing.

Collection Totals

In the latest report generated this week, the City of Albany has collected $526,992 of the $594,789 levy, or 88.6 percent.

The Shackelford County Hospital District had received payments totaling $975,609 on the total adjusted tax levy of $1,175,441, or 83 percent, with some under litigation.

The taxes collected for Shackelford County on the same date were 82.91 percent of the total 2022 levy of $3,795,281, with payments received of $3,146,781, not including the amount under litigation.

Moran ISD levied taxes of $604,918 for 2022. As of this week, they had collected $494,415, equaling 81.73 percent.

Albany ISD had brought in 78.12 percent of the 2022 tax levy, with some under litigation. Collections of $2,523,787 had already been made toward the total adjusted tax amount of $3,230,748.

The City of Moran, the smallest entity, had collected $18,639 of the $32,702 levied, equaling 57 percent.

Penalties

Property owners who did not pay their 2022 taxes on time are being charged penalty and interest on an accumulating scale, starting with seven percent of the total amount added on for the month of February.

The penalty amount will go up by two percentage points every month until July, when it will jump three points to 18 percent.

Any taxes not paid by the end of June will be handled by tax attorneys, with another 20 percent added to cover legal fees.

The only exceptions will be those who already applied for and received the quarterly payment option offered to disabled taxpayers or those over the age of 65.