County taxes are due next Tuesday

Grady County Tax Commissioner Phyllis Gainous issued a pre-Christmas warning this week that county taxes are due and payable by next Tuesday, Dec. 29.
As of Monday, the tax commissioner reported that her office has collected just over half of the $12,228,682 in taxes billed to local taxpayers. The total collections to date through Monday were $6,389,089.
“I was hoping to have collected more than that by now, but we do have another week to go. We’ve got the big mortgage companies that wait until the end to pay. I expect we will be real busy Monday and Tuesday,” Mrs. Gainous said.
The tax commissioners says that the foot traffic of taxpayers coming in to pay has been steady and the mail sack each day has been full.
“We kind of feel like Santa Claus getting all this mail, but folks have other names for us than Santa, I’m afraid,” Mrs. Gainous joked.
The county commission approved the tax commissioner accepting partial payments. To date, 67 taxpayers have entered into partial payment agreements with the tax commissioner, which is more than this time last year and more are anticipated as the due date approaches.
Under the agreement, the taxpayer must make a monthly payment every 30 days including interest and penalties. The monthly payments must be a reasonable amount approved by the tax commissioner.
City of Cairo taxes are not due until Feb. 8, 2010, because of the delay caused by the faulty tax digest presented by the county board of tax assessors.
City Clerk Carolyn Lee reported this week that through Monday her office had collected $379,731.93, roughly 29 percent of the total taxes due of $1,324,688.93.
“We’ve had a steady amount of taxpayers paying in person and through the mail. Our tax bills haven’t even been out that long, so I am pleased with collections to date,” Mrs. Lee said.
The city does not offer a partial payment plan for city taxpayers.