Property tax bills may be sent out electronically

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Riverside County residents have the option of paying their property-tax bills online. By late next year, they may also be able to elect to receive their bills electronically, as opposed to through the mail. That's something Supervisor Jeff Stone of Temecula wants the county to offer as a convenience to Riverside County's 900,000 property owners. “We’re in the new electronic age," Stone said, during last Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. "I don’t know if we’re pre-empted by state law, but, with future tax bills, it would be nice if we had a place on the tax bill that’s mailed out that a prospective taxpayer can actually sign, to receive their tax bill electronically.” Stone also touted the notion of sending tax bills out via email as a cost-saving strategy for a county that has seen annual revenue plummet by more than $200 million a year since last decade's housing collapse. “That might save this county hundreds of thousands of dollars in postage every year,” he said. Treasurer-Tax Collector Don Kent said his department already is working on it. “That’s being incorporated into our new property tax system," Kent said in a telephone interview lasts week. "It’s in development right now.” Kent said the "ebilling" option -- as it is being called -- could debut as early as October 2014. The treasurer-tax collector office routinely sends out bills in the fall for taxes due in two installments, in December and in April. Kent said the county spends about 67 cents on postage and printing per bill. He said the cost was $575,000 in fiscal year 2011-12, which ended last July. Kent said the county could begin to eliminate a portion of the postage expense as it rolls out a comprehensive $16 million upgrade to its outdated computer system for processing property assessments. That project has been dubbed CREST, which stands for County of Riverside Enterprise Solutions for property Taxation. It is replacing 40-year-old technology. Kent said the county is in its fourth year of the upgrade, and the first phase of the new system may be unveiled next year. He said the county is aiming at that time to launch ebilling, which will mean notifying people via email and possibly through some sort of Internet subscription. Even if the October 2014 target is met, though, county officials do not anticipate a flood of people taking them up on the offer. At the outset, Kent said, only a few thousand owners are expected to opt in. "Just like anything that's new, it will take years to build up momentum to get people off of the tax bill in print,” he said. “Some people don’t even have a computer. Some people may not do anything online; they may not feel comfortable with that.” Others may choose to receive bills by email, then change email addresses without notifying the county. “That’s part of the challenge in the digital world versus the paper document," Kent said. "Those are all things we have to keep in mind as we move into this arena.” At the other end of the process, property owners have had the option of paying taxes online since 2000 -- initially by electronic check only, and later by credit card, too, Kent said. Last year, more than 125,000 paid online. In fiscal 2011-12, he said, there were 78,596 electronic check transactions and 48,633 online credit card payments. "Certainly the potential is there for savings," Kent said. “But the savings won’t be realized until many years down the road. ... Nevertheless, we’re absolutely on board with saving money wherever we can.”