Butler County property owners now have one less method to choose from when paying their property taxes.
The automatic withdrawal option for paying is being cut by the treasurer's office, according to Butler County Treasurer Nancy Nix.
Nix said around 1,300 property owners currently use this option, which is slightly less than 2 percent of property owners in Butler County.
Nix cited reasons such as staff cuts (more than 35 percent) in the treasurer's office and said this method of payment "requires an inordinate amount of oversight."
Nix said since the treasurer's office is a government enterprise rather than a business, they have a process for when people do not pay their taxes.
"We are a government enterprise rather than a business, so when people don't pay their taxes we have alternative recourses," Nix said.
According to Nix, although the treasurer's office tries to run the department as a business model as much as possible, there are differences.
For example, she said it is more financially conservative for the taxpayers to initiate payment, such as by sending a check instead of the office initiating payment by making the withdrawal. Nix said their systems are not set up to support this system.
Nix said the automatic withdrawal was not required by the state of Ohio, but the state tried to provide as many services as possible to their taxpayers.
According to Nix, now there is a need to "get back to the basics," and unfortunately this service was an extra that they cannot sustain, especially with staff cuts.
Taxpayers can still choose from options such as mailing a check, paying online or paying through their mortgage company. Taxpayers who own multiple properties will not have to use separate payments, but can send their payments together.
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"It might be an inconvenience and make it harder for those people using it to make their payments," Miami University sophomore Emily Glaser said.
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