Newton County departments are accepting partial payments on property tax and solid waste accounts as a way to help residents pay down their bills and boost clear up outstanding debts.
The county has been looking at ways to clear up some of the backlog of debt from the Tax Assessor and Solid Waste departments for several months, and the Board of Supervisors approved the partial payment plan in their March 4 meeting.
Tax Assessor May Bender said the partial payments are a way for residents to clear up some of what they owe without having to come up with a large sum.
“It can be hard to come up with that big sum,” she said. “A partial payment is better than none.”
For property taxes, Bender said she will work with residents to come up with a plan to help them pay off what they owe. She said she wants to be flexible and avoid a prearranged payment schedule.
“You don’t have to do January, February, March,” she said.
However, Bender said, residents will still need to pay off their tax bills by July as that is when the county sends the delinquent tax rolls to The Newton County Appeal to be published.
For solid waste partial payments, Cindy Horton, solid waste clerk, said the main goal of partial payments is to clear up some of the outstanding debt the county has on its records and free up services for residents. Unpaid solid waste bills, she said, can disqualify residents from renewing their car tag or receiving a license plate.
“They won’t have to pay the whole thing, but we’d like them to pay a large chunk,” she said. “If they owed $250, we’d try to get $150 off. Then I can get them their car tag.”
Many of the past-due accounts for the county’s solid waste department aren’t due to people not paying their bills, Horton explained. It is because they don’t update their information when they move.
“We’ve just got so many folks that live in the county, and they don’t update their information,” she said.
For instance, Horton said a resident had come in Friday because she was denied a car tag in Neshoba County due to an unpaid solid waste bill.
“Her home had burned down half-a-year ago, but she never told us,” Horton said.
Since solid waste had not been told, Horton said the county kept charging for trash service at the resident’s home.
By implementing a partial payment option, Horton said she hopes residents will be able to get their car registrations easier and the number of overdue accounts will decrease. However, she said, the best solution for her department would be if residents remembered to let solid waste know when they move.
