Apr 3, 2024 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

The city of Washington is behind in revenue from property tax collection, prompting

City Administrator Donn Henderson to issue a plea Monday for residents to pay their tax bills as soon as possible.

Henderson told City Council that this year’s collection is $400,000 behind normal. He said the recent cyberattack on the county resulted in a delay in the distribution of tax bills.

“The county sends out a tax duplicate and that’s the information we use to send bills,” Henderson said. “(Residents) got their bills a little later, which is causing the shortfall. We’re probably about three weeks behind where we would be in revenue at this time, simply because it took a little longer to get information from the county and it took us a little longer to get it out.

“If it lingers too long, we have to take out a loan, and we have to pay interest on that loan. We’re hopeful that people will be understanding of that and not want us to spend any more tax dollars. If they have the ability to get their tax payment in, help us out and get it in.”

Taxes may be paid at a 2% discount up to April 30. The deadline to pay at the regular rate is June 29.

Eligible residents are also invited to apply for the Citywide Development Corp.’s Block By Block Home Repair Program.

The program provides time, talent and resources for home improvement projects to eligible homeowners at no cost to the homeowner. The home improvement programs are intended to improve the safety of the exterior and exterior of the home, and to keep in compliance with state and local codes.

Homes in the 7th and 8th Wards will receive first priority. Residents in other areas of the city will be considered based on need, funding and availability. Grants also are available through the Community Development Block Grant program, which is administered by the county’s Redevelopment Authority.

“Those are two different pools for people who meet the requirements,” Henderson said.

Applications are available at City Hall and the Redevelopment Authority.

Also, Fern Sibert, director of Clean and Tidy Our County, said the next cleanup will be held April 20 and will focus on parks and playgrounds. She is hoping to make it a friendly competition between the city’s wards.

“We need everybody to give of their time. We’ll all be winners if every ward comes out and picks up 20, 50, 100 bags of trash off of that ward. The whole town will benefit from that,” she said.