County hears 'shocking' tax collection figures

The board of commissioners met on Monday with Cheyenne County Treasurer Diane Scott to compare the county's current fiscal situation to figures from a year ago.

"2012 tax collections are at 62 percent, and last year at this time they were at 60 percent," Diane Scott said.

The biggest concern in Scott's mind was a drop in inheritance tax collections which were $32,000 less than last year and seems to be on a downward trend, she said. Last year collections were $46,000 less than the year before.

"We almost have $79,000 less in our inheritance tax than what we did two years ago," Scott said.

The county tries to keep just over $1 million in the inheritance account, and at this point the balance is just above $950,000.

"That was a shock," Winkelman said.

Scott lamented that the county usually uses funds in the inheritance tax account for investments. Scott was concerned lowering inheritance tax percentages keep going down, and was worried that that the tax might be nixed altogether.

"It'll really hurt counties if they do away with it," Scott said.

The county is also collecting fewer funds from drivers license fees.

"People can do them online and we get absolutely nothing if they do them online," Scott said.

The county still processes online car registration so the office does obtain revenue from those fees.

Cheyenne County Assessor Louella Pippitt spoke with the commissioners about possible inclusions in her three year plan. While running statistics, Pippitt has found that overall, her rural residential valuations are too low, so she'll be working to correct this problem in the next year.

"When I do statistics from sales, I'm coming in at 90 percent and I have to be at 92 to 100 percent of market value," Pippett said.

Things could change, she continued. Pippitt still has until the end of September for sales to even out.

Age, quality, condition and number of acres all are factored into valuations

"That's what we have to take into consideration," Pippett said.