MAHONING COUNTY Treasurer reinstates Tax Installment Plan

The monthly payment program restarts in April.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County residents may resume making monthly real estate tax payments later this year now that county Treasurer John B. Reardon is reinstating the Tax Installment Plan.
The TIP program was suspended in 2005 because of budget cuts throughout the county after the defeat of a 0.5 percent sales tax issue in November 2004. Layoffs occurred in the treasurer's office, and the 11 remaining employees worked 32 hours per week instead of 40 hours. That made it difficult for staff to keep up with state-mandated work, let alone optional programs such as TIP, which "we view as a legitimate customer service for the people of Mahoning County," Reardon said Tuesday.
County commissioners in December approved Reardon's 2006 general fund budget request of $692,000, compared with the $465,000 his office was budgeted for 2005. The treasurer's office now has 13 employees working 40 hours per week, Reardon said.
About 5,300 taxpayers were participating in TIP when it was suspended, Reardon said. Many of them are senior citizens who live on fixed incomes and prefer monthly payments to larger biannual tax bills, he said.
Notification letters
Letters announcing the program's resumption were to be mailed Tuesday to those participants, as well as hundreds of other property owners who had signed up for TIP in 2005, before it was suspended.
All of those accounts will automatically be activated unless the treasurer's office hears otherwise from individuals, Reardon said. Taxpayers who do not want to participate in TIP should complete and return a small form at the bottom of the treasurer's letter.
TIP coupons and address labels will be mailed to taxpayers by late February, Reardon said.
TIP participants must pay the first half of this year's real estate tax bills in full by March 10 to avoid penalties. Monthly payments will start in April toward second-half tax bills that are due Aug. 4.
New TIP participants may sign up by calling the treasurer's office at (330) 740-2460, Ext. 7761.