INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River County’s tax collection and driver’s license office made a belated entry into the 21st century this fall when it switched to a Web-based software system, a move that saved the county $340,000.
When the system, called TaxSys, became operational, Indian River County joined big league counties like Miami-Dade and Broward in using what appears to be the most efficient and cost-effective software available to Florida tax collectors.
The county had been using accounting procedures that still required pen and paper for some functions. The new, Web-based software system integrates cashiering and automates the collection and distribution of hundreds of millions in tax dollars.
“It is amazing technology,” said Tax Collector Carol Jean Jordan. “It will keep us from having to hire new staff even though we had to take over all the drivers’ license services from the state.”
Jordan, who inherited the out-of-date system when she took office in 2009, got the upgrade for free, saving $340,000 compared to what she would have had to pay to upgrade with the existing software provider.
“There are three companies that provide software for tax collectors,” said Jordan’s Executive Director Craig Lombard. “We took our time and studied all three systems. We had each company in for a day-long presentation and all of our directors wanted Grant Street Group’s TaxSys software. It was the only all-encompassing program that provides universal cashiering and integration with our accounting software.”
The other two software providers are Pacific Blue and Manatron. Prior to the upgrade, the tax collector’s office used Manatron’s software since 2002, according to Lombard.
“If we had upgraded with them, it would have cost us $339,500 upfront,” he said. “With Grant Street Group, there was no implementation fee and they didn’t charge us for training or travel. They were in our office training our staff on a weekly basis since May, but it didn’t cost us anything.”
“Through her negotiations, Carol Jean Jordan saved the county more than $300,000 in upfront costs,” said Ian Yorty, director of Florida Business Development for Grant Street, “but the savings don’t stop there. From my perspective one of the biggest benefits of a hosted online software system is that the county uses the service without having to employ people internally to keep it running. It frees up IT people to focus on all the other things they have to do. There is no license fee to pay to Oracle and no capital expenses buying new equipment.”
The tax collector will pay Grant Street Group an annual fee for the use of its Web-based software, but Jordan says she negotiated an improved price on that as well.
“I think they started out at $175,000, but we got it down to $150,000,” she said.
That is the same yearly fee Manatron and Ocean Blue would have charged, on top of their upfront implementation fees, according to Lombard.
“Manatron’s annual fee was $149,000. Ocean Blue was $150,000,” Lombard said. “Our only upfront cost with Grant Street was an optional back-up server we bought for $13,000 for use in case we lose Internet service.”
The decision to upgrade was driven by three things: a desire for greater efficiency, the need to cope with additional work since the state palmed off drivers licenses on the counties to cut its own budget and impending changes to the Manatron system that would have forced an upgrade within a year or two.
Property tax collection and distribution is an area where TaxSys makes the county more efficient and reduces the chance of error.
Property tax rates change annually and vary according to when they are paid. There is a discount for early payment and escalating charges for late payment. If a payment is sufficiently past due, the tax collector auctions off tax certificates that give investors interest income and potentially allow them to claim property that is in arrears.
With the previous system, all of those variations had to be figured manually on calculators and recorded in tens of thousands of accounts.
Now those calculations are made automatically by TaxSys.
Once money is in the tax collector’s coffers, it has to be distributed according to complicated formulas to the school district, the board of supervisors and other entities, with large payments figured to the penny going out weekly. All of those calculations have been automated, according to Jordan.
The new system also simplifies bookkeeping if a taxpayer pays for several items with a single check, such as a new driver’s license and car registration and makes it easier to pay property taxes online.
And residents can now pay with a credit card for transactions at the counter to get driver’s licenses or renew registration – a type of transaction not possible in Indian River County during the first 10 years and eight months of the 21st century.
