COLUMBIANA CO. Treasurer appreciates money for postage

The treasurer's office will have postage for second-half real estate tax bills.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County Treasurer Linda Bolon said she is grateful to county commissioners for reversing an earlier decision that there would be no funds available to mail second-half real estate tax bills.
Commissioners had said May 9 that there would be no funds provided to the treasurer to pay for mailing the tax bills.
She said commissioners changed their minds and recently authorized a transfer of $14,000 to the treasurer's office. The money will be used to mail the tax bills, which otherwise would have had to be picked up by property owners.
Bolon said bills for the taxes due by Sept. 5 are to be mailed by the end of July.
They had considered eliminating the $14,000 as a way to save money as the cash-starved county faces a looming deficit.
Service delays
Other budget cuts will probably cause some delays in services provided by the county auditor's office, county Auditor Nancy Milliken said.
In a statement released Thursday, Milliken vowed to make every effort to provide taxpayers with necessary services, but she asked for taxpayers' patience and understanding during the financially strapped county's difficult times.
She said staffing cuts in the weights and measures and personal property and estate tax departments could cause delays or elimination of some services.
Milliken said she has eliminated one 40-hour bookkeeping position, dividing the work among herself and two other employees.
She has cut the hours of the only weights and measures employee and the only personal property and estate tax employee from 40 to 24 hours per week.
"This means we may not be able to check all of the scanning devices, carwashes, tanning salons and many other measuring devices in the county," Milliken said. "However, I will make sure that all of the scales and gas pumps are checked each year to ensure that [taxpayers] receive the correct amounts for each dollar [they] spend."
She said staffing cuts in the personal property and estate tax service may cause delays in processing those tax returns, but her office will still provide those services.