County Treasurer

Every once in awhile, I take a look at something in the County budget that I never much paid attention to.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed the revenue produced from the interest on the late payment of taxes.  I almost didn't believe it when I looked at the 2006 budget and saw that there was $464,934 in interest charges on late payments of taxes.  I asked Dan Welch about it who confirmed that all that revenue was from late payments and said that the number increased to $531,000 last year.  All this money goes to the County's General Corp fund, a substantial revenue source. 

Anyway, if you want to help put the pinch on County finances, pay your first installment by June 2.  My recommendation is to have it automatically withdrawn from your bank account. And put a reminder somewhere about the September payment.  I think that's often the forgotten one.

Your property tax bill is being sent out on May 2nd.  But you can see the damage now.

The classifieds section of Friday's News-Gazette had 40+ pages devoted to publishing property assessments throughout the county.   I wonder how much such publication costs county government.       But today all assessments are available on-line.   No one needing to lookup an assessment will ever refer to the annual newspaper listings.   Of course state law probably dictates this publication, but it seems that the law needs changing to instead allow internet availability.  

The requirement of annually mailing assessments to each owner of record remains valid.

I promoted this from an anonymoust comment:

There are 19 local races that I count - Judge Ford’s race, 3 countywide (clerk, sheriff, treasurer) and 15 county board seats. Of those, the Dems have 7 incumbents that are running for re-election. Outside of their incumbents, they’ve only recruited 4 new people to run. Of those, 1 is a perennial candidate with no chance of winning (Bob Morrison), 1 was recruited at the last minute for an open Dem seat (Melin - CB7), and 2 were recruited to run against Beckett & Wysocki.

That’s hilarious.

I wonder when the News-Gazette is going to write a nasty editorial about the impotence and ineffectiveness of the Champaign County Democratic Party?

The GOP statewide ticket might finally be inching towards completion.

UPDATE:  Thanks to an alert commenter, I've updated the headline to reflect that Pankau is thinking about running for Comptroller, not Treasurer.

I apologize if this blog has been to focued on Katrina lately.  Partly it's because I've been so distracted by the storm and aftermath, and partyly it's that the silence on the local political front is deafening.  Other than the Winkel/Frerichs news, there have been precious few rumors and announcements about local offices.

Petitions can be circulated beginning in late September.  Things I/we still don't know:

• Republican candidate for State Senator in the 52nd District
• Republican candidate for State House in the 103rd District (which I think is unlikely, at this point) 
• Democrat candidate for County Clerk
• Democrat candidate for Sheriff
• Democrat candidate for Treasurer
• Challengers for any County Board seat

I suspect that an upcoming announcement by State Rep. Bill Black regarding his 2006 plans will get things moving.  If he runs, many of the local offices fall into place.  If he doesn't run, then there will be serious scrambling on both sides of the aisle, as people step up to State Senate, and others step up to run for those offices that are suddenly open.

On the other hand, there's plenty happening around here:

• Savoy will almost certainly create their own Mass Transit District today
• The Champaign County GOP Precinct Committeemen are meeting as a group for the first time in at least eight months on Thursday
• The Champaign City Council will have a lively smoking-ban study session on September 13

So there's lot to talk about, even if we've almost exhaustively covered some of it.  I'll try to return to spending more time on local issues.

Who's going to run for the Champaign County countywide offices?

Against Republican County Clerk Mark Shelden?

Against Republican Sheriff Dan Walsh (who was unopposed in 2002)?

Against Republican Treasurer Dan Welch (who was unopposed in 2002)?

Will any of them have tough races?

Thanks, and have a great weekend.