Ford County property tax bills delayed yet again



PAXTON — The mailing of Ford County’s property tax bills to landowners has been delayed again — for the third time in four years.

Ford County Clerk & Recorder Amy Frederick said Friday that the bills would not be mailed until after the tax cycle process reaches the treasurer’s office, which could be as much as a month away.

Only recently did Frederick’s office begin the process of obtaining tax levy information from taxing districts and calculating the tax rates and equalized assessed valuations for taxing districts. Frederick began that process after the supervisor of assessments’ office had finalized assessments and assessment changes.

Once the county clerk wraps up her end of the process, Treasurer Krisha Whitcomb will print and mail the tax bills, then collect payments and distribute funds to taxing districts after the due dates for the first and second installments.

The county’s real estate tax bills are usually mailed in late May with the first payments due in early July. This year, though, marks the third time in four years that the mailing of tax bills has been delayed. In both 2022 and 2020, the bills were not mailed until mid-August. A total of 10,282 tax bills were mailed last year — with around $32 million collected — and taxpayers had until Sept. 23 and Nov. 18 to pay the two installments and avoid late fees, respectively.

So far this decade, only in 2021 did county officials avoid a delay in the tax cycle, as bills for 2020 went out May 28, 2021, with payment deadlines of July 2 and Sept. 10.

For the Paxton Park District, a small taxing body that relies on its share of property taxes to stay afloat, the delays have been especially “frustrating,” Recreation Director Cody Evans said a year ago. Such frustrations were shared by Ford County’s three public school districts, which planned to send a letter last year to Ford County officials expressing their concerns about the situation and a desire to see an improved tax collection and distribution process in the future.

“Hopefully, (the county) can get it figured out,” Evans said last year. “I’m sure they will.”

Not only were the tax bills late again last year but Gibson City landowners were accidentally overcharged on the city portion of their bills. This year, they will see a credit on their bills for the amount they overpaid, Whitcomb said last fall.

“The statute says that any taxes overpaid as a result of an extension error will be abated on the following year’s tax levy,” Whitcomb said in a statement. “The parcels affected by the incorrect (2021) levy will receive a credit on the 2022 payable 2023 tax bills, which will include any interest that is accumulated between now and May of 2023 when the tax bills are expected to be generated.”