Property tax statements delayed for Logan County residents; deadlines extended

Logan County residents will soon be receiving their property tax statements this week if they did not receive them late last week. The delay comes after a county entity did not turn over their budget in a timely manner.

The Logan County Treasurer’s Office has seen its fair share of phone calls in the last few weeks from citizens not receiving their property tax statements.

According to state law, the state will not and cannot certify tax levies until all budgets are turned in from county entities, including school districts. Once the budgets have been signed off by the excise board, they are advertised in a local newspaper before being sent off to the state for certification.

However this year, Crescent EMS did not successfully turn their budget in on time.

“We rely on many people to turn in the proper paperwork before the County can begin to create the tax roll,” Logan County Treasurer Sherri Longnecker said in an email to Guthrie News Page.

“Each entity that receives money is required to turn in a budget by a certain time, but if they fail to do that and miss the scheduled meetings then it holds everyone up.”

If all the budgets and levies are correct, the state then certifies them and forwards to the assessor’s office to build the tax roll. Afterwards, it’s forwarded to the treasurer’s office. However, there is a 10 day hold on the tax levies to allow for protests.

Longnecker says she was not able to mail, release or receive tax amounts or tax payments until that protest period was up on Dec 10 at 5 p.m. At that point, the tax roll was inserted online, and the statements became available to the public to view and or pay in office or online Dec 11.

The treasurer’s office began the mailing process immediately and the first mailings went out last Friday along with more on Monday and Tuesday.

“(Residents) should receive their tax statements in the mail by the end of this week with a letter explaining the delay and the new due dates,” Longnecker added.

The new due dates for this tax season will be Jan. 31 for the first half and the second half by April 30, or full payment by Feb. 15 to avoid penalty.

No half payments will be accepted after Jan. 31.