Hello and Happy Birthday

Hello to one and all and Happy New Year to those I have not spoken with. It's January 7, 2008 which means everyone has everything done and wrapped up, the feet are up, and not a single thought has been given to the dreaded tax sale, which by the way is a short 8 months away.

I would be remiss if I didn't document this month's birthdays.

Steve Holt turns 29 on January 17th!!!! Congratulations Steve.

Won't be long before we're gathering in Jeff City and I look forward to seeing each of you then.

Weather Or Not

Has this week been rough...or what??


Hope you all are digging out from the mess that was left for us. You would think Mother Nature could plan these events around tax season!

Neosho didn't get hit as hard as in January's storm, however I think Joplin which is just 20 miles North got hit much harder and many are still struggling without power and heat.

How did you fare and did the storm create any interesting stories regarding business in your office?

Leave a message in the comments section and I'll get them posted asap.

Hope everyone is warm and with power!

Best wishes.

Birthdays

Sorry to say for everyone who let me know about birthdates...we have no co-horts celebrating their birth this month. First month since I started this blog that we haven't had anyone to honor with a toast.


We'll celebrate more next month!!!


Hope your tax season is going well!! Comments or happenings about tax season....drop me an email and I'll get it posted.

Tax Exempt Waivers

I have taken some flak at the counter this season and I know others have too on the issue of not issuing waivers unless ALL personal property taxes are paid.

The statute # is 301.025

Hope you're all having a good tax season!!!!

The Blog

I have a question that I would welcome some response from.

In regards to the tax sale and the affidavits. 140.405 states "until the person meets with the following requirement OR until such person makes affidavit that a title search....."

Next to last sentence of the topic refers to a 90 day span between the time affidavit is made and the time a deed is issued.

Isn't the 90 day wait post-affidavit for third offering properties?? The first paragraph appears to give the buyer an option of adhering to the chapter requirement OR making affidavit. The last paragraph indicates a 90 day wait.

The question is not whether a 90 day period is needed in regards to a certified letter we know that is for sure. It is whether the 90 day wait doesn't start until affidavit is made. Can the buyer send the letter...wait 90 days...and the day they come in to pick up the deed given written sworn notice they have done what is required to obtain a deed?

Leave me responses..comments....all will be posted unless they personally attack me for being so confused. If that happens I will order a large flock of starlings to fly over your car and leave a business card!!

Happy Birthday!!

Wow time has passed quickly....can you believe it's tax season and the tax sale is just 10 months away???

November is not without a birthday greeting to pass along.

Call or drop a note of best wishes to:

Diana Rennick (Audrain) November 5

The Stork a Cometh

The latest collector news I have has nothing to do with the office. I found out recently I am just months away (six or so) from becoming a first time Grandpa!

Lori is 25 and her and Jason are expecting their first.

Details as they develop!

October Happy Birthdays

We have just one birthday to celebrate this month. As busy as we are preparing for tax season I hope you will take time to give a birthday song to:

Sheila Wyatt (Taney) October 14th

Happy Birthday Sheila!

Please Accept With Apologies

It was brought to my attention yesterday at Skip's retirement reception that I had left out information about former MCCA President Margie Bowman (Ray) running for an at large seat on the board of the Missouri Association of Counties.

I apologize to Margie for the error and invite you to call her in Ray County to find out how you can help get her elected to the MAC board.

In the future if you happen to see important facts that I have left out of a story please let me know, either by phone or better yet by clicking the comment bar at the bottom of each story, and I will either make a correction or explain the reason why I may have left them out.

Notes From Last Week's Meeting

A good number of collector's attended last week's veto session legislative meeting at the Capital Plaza in Jeff City.

Thanks to Pam Shipley (Cass) for passing along these notes from the meeting. Pam writes, "For those of you who could not attend the collector's meeting on Wednesday, we missed seeing you there. We discussed tax sale issues and the Secretary (Janice Varner, Barry) recorded several questions that were presented. The Executive Board said they would research the issues and answer all the questions raised at conference next April.

Pam also said she asked Secretary Varner to send out a copy of the minutes so that those of us who could not attend could read up on the days activities. Janice said she would try and get that done ASAP.

News also came out that Debbi McGinnis (Polk) is running for a term as the Missouri Association of Counties Treasurer. The votes will be cast and counted at the annual MAC conference this November.

In order to cast your vote you must attend the MAC conference and be a registered voting delegate. I'm sure Debbie would be more than happy to field a phone call and inquiry about how you can help her get elected. Debbie is an active member of NACCTFO (National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers, and Financial Officers) and has also actively served in various capacities with MAC. Let's do all we can to help Debbie.

Steve Holt (Jasper) was also recognized. This past spring/summer Steve was elected Treasurer of NACCTFO. Personally I am glad Steve has found something to keep himself busy. Being a collector of a first class county, arranging for accommodations and planning for our conference and meetings, designing and printing our directories, a Husband and a Dad just wasn't enough. Congratulations Steve!

I'll update news from the most recent meeting after receiving the minutes from Janice.

Saying Goodbye

Word is out of the coming retirement of one of the associations longest serving members.

Skip Rich (Cole) will serve his final day in office October 2nd. Skip is one of just two collector's to hold office in Cole County since WWII. A Past President of our association Skip has lended his talents to countless causes and after serving the better part of three decades has played a role in getting most if not all legislation passed that effects those of us in office today (i.e. CERF, Tax Maintenance Fund and others).

Skip's most recent accomplishment was serving his country during the current conflict in Iraq. Skip missed over a year of a recent term as he was stationed in Texas preparing our service men and women for deployment to the middle east.

I doubt you ever sat and wondered how Skip felt about a particular issue and whether you agreed or not with his take on a given subject. There is no way you could think Skip wanted anything more than to make things better for all of us who serve in office.

Skip will definitely leave the association in better shape than he found it and like the troops he prepared to fight overseas, he can't control how we as collector's perform in the future. He can only reflect on a legacy of knowing he instilled in us the importance of making the sacrifice to leave things better than when we arrived.

A retirement reception is planned to honor Skip. The event is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., September 25, in the Cole County Courthouse Annex. The annex is located at 311 E. High Street in Jefferson City.

Hope to see you there on the 25th.

If you would like to leave Skip a send-off message click "comments" at the bottom of this story and I will post your response as soon as I receive it.

Sad News

I am informed that the Mother of Harrison County Collector/Treasurer Julia Alexander Harris has passed away.

Visitation for Kathryn Breit will be Thursday, September 6th, from 7:00-8:30 at the Prugh-Dunfee Funeral Home in Grant City, Missouri.

The address for the funeral home is:

Prugh-Dunfee Funderal Home
200 S. Front
Grant City, MO 64456.

Funeral services will be This Friday (Sept 7) at 2:00, at the Parnell United Methodist Church, Parnell, Missouri.

Our thoughts are with Julia.

Happy Birthdays For September

As the Summer sands pass through the hourglass so do the days of our lives. O.K., so it doesn't go exactly like that on the soap opera but it does provide a nice segue into this months birthday wishes.

We hope the trio of collector's celebrating this month all attend the meeting on the 12th so we can give them their personal greetings!!!

Bev Vasser (Cheriton) September 10

Anita Dunkle (Monroe) September 17

Janice Varner (Barry) September 19

See you in Jeff City!

Tax Sale Follow-up

I've felt blessed to not have more than 45 or so properties each year since 2003. But while thinking about Monday's sale and how things went and mulling over whether we need to change anything about our approach and presentation I got to thinking how nice it would be to not have a sale at all.

That led me then to wondering who had the fewest properties to offer? I think Wayne Scharnhorst (Howell, had 3 in 2006), Jeanette Ronchetto(Macon) left a message late last week that they were down to 8 with hopes of trimming the total to five.

If you wouldn't mind responding give me your name, county and total number of parcels you offered at this year's sale. Also, feel free to leave a note about what single thing you do that you believe plays a role in getting you down to your final number.

Click the comment button at the bottom of this story and I will publish your response ASAP.

TGIO Means Thank God It's Over!

Here's the final numbers from this years delinquent land tax auction.

We took 45 properties and sold 42 with 3 no bids.

We also took 5 properties to auction on behalf of two of our municipalities. 4 of those sold with 1 no bid.

In all $31, 228.69 county tax dollars were collected while $406.38 was collected for the cities. We also deposited over $26,000 into the school fund.

15 different people purchased property at Monday's sale.

Numbers looked bleak going into last Friday as we had 82 eligible parcels. We had 31 pay Friday and 6 more pay the morning of the sale to get us to our starting point. The 45 we took to auction was the highest number (by one) that we've offered since my first sale in 2003.

How did you do at your sale? Everyone wants to know. Click the word "comments" and I will get your response published ASAP.

Presidential Appointments

Also part of the letter which announced the upcoming September meeting was news from President Cockrum (Clinton) of her committee appointments.

Forming a Department of Revenue Committee is Margie Bowman (Chairperson, Ray), Lee Viorel (Marion), Jim Platt (Bates), Brent Karhoff (Knox), Ted Nichols (Christian), Wayne Scharnhorst (Howell), Donna Nash (Platte), Pat Lensmeyer (Boone).

As you know there have been discussions concerning the counties going online with tax information and the DOR urging us to continue to sell duplicate receipts. DOR has been and is still in a transition period and there is a lot of room for our Assn. and the DOR to work together to make things simpler and easier on the taxpayers and the body assembled by Sharon should be able to help pave the way to improvements.

President Cockrum also appointed a technology committee. Skip Rich (Cole), Mary Noel (Nodaway), Mary Hampton (Wayne), Steve Pickering (LaClede), Ted Nichols (Christian), and Jim Otey (Newton).

Pam Shipley (Cass) proposed at our last meeting to have Official Payments hold a meeting for counties currently using the company for online, credit card, or phone payments and for any county who may have an interest in using O.P. for any of the available services.

The meeting would be designed as an open ended meeting to open up avenues of communication between the county collector and the company.

Pam reports she believes O.P. is close to arranging a time and date for such a meeting and assures everyone they will be notified once tentative plans are firmed up.

Make Your Plans Now

I don;t know why you wouldn't have but just in case you didn't receive a letter from President Sharon Cockrum (Clinton) the association is having an organizational meeting in Jefferson City next month.

September 12 is the date with the meeting being called to order at 9:30.

For those wanting to go up the night before Steve Holt (Jasper) has secured a block of rooms at two different hotels. The Capital Plaza has rooms for $71.07 which I am told includes the lodging tax. Call 573-635-1234 ASAP.

The Hampton Inn also has rooms set aside with the rate of $69.30 that does not include any state or lodging taxes. Call 573-634-7440 ASAP and make sure to tell either reservation desk you are with the Collector's Assn.

Assn. Treasurer Brent Karhoff (Knox) needs an RSVP by September 7.

The meeting coincides with the run up to the start of a new tax season as well as the scheduled veto session for the legislature so there should be plenty of discussion on the agenda.

Tax Sale Update

After laboring for weeks the pace has finally picked up on our tax sale property collections. At times this summer we have been as many as 30 properties behind the same date a year ago.

The last few days have been beneficial as we have lowered our number of eligible properties to 117 which is 13 ahead of the close of business one year ago.

How's everyones tax sale coming along? Let me know if you like by clicking the comments button at the bottom of this story!

Joke Of The Week

44 parrots are missing after having been stolen from a pet shop...The birds are valued at more than $55,000....

Case should be solved soon....the suspect should be quick to return them once he learns the birds talk even more than his wife......


Speaking of wives.....You hear about the cop that pulled over his wife under suspicion of driving under the influence? First time he did it the wife left the scene....the second time the officer called for back-up......

Asked about the prospects of his wife going to jail...the officer said he was most looking forward to the conjugal visits.


The N.B.A. referee charged in a gambling ring bust has pleaded guilty and faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and a half million dollar fine....Tim Donaghy will obviously never referee another n.b.a. game......In return for his guilty plea the ref is reportedly asking for the black and white stripes on the prison issue jump suits to run vertically instead of horizontally........

Can anyone familiar with the lore of prison life guess which kind of games Donaghy will now be refereeing?

Joke Of The Week

The Space Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for an evening lift off from Florida.

The lift off had been delayed by a leaky valve in the cabin.....and to give astronauts time to recover after learning that past references to Jack Daniels weren't about an astronaut.

Of course the revelation being made last week that some space pilots have taken flight drunk...there won't be any of that this time around as a teacher will be on board. Barbara Morgan is a teacher turned astronaut...her crew mates are glad to have her on board....but have asked her not to delay their experiments with a pop quiz.

Have you ever heard the one about the guy..the monkey and the airplane??

No really...this week a guy flying from Peru to the U.S. smuggled a monkey onto the flight by hiding the fist sized primate under his hat.

Nobody noticed!! Until a passenger saw the monkey hanging on the guy's ponytail. As you can imagine customs agents weren't pleased....the guy might face charges...sounds like the monkey is headed for a zoo...but only if they find he's not a member of Al Qaeda.

The smuggling is also expected to spark debate on Capital Hill..re-visiting the same argument of whether amnesty should be granted to illegals who find work in this country.

Happy Birthdays!

August is a big month for birthdays and we even have two sets of collectors who have the same birthdate. I always wondered why they kept completing each others sentences.

Best birthday wishes to:

Charla Royer (Madison) Aug 11

Pam Shipley (Cass) Aug 12

Jeanette Ronchetto (Macon) Aug 19
Jayne Helton (Maries) Aug 19


Tammy Cantrell(Texas) Aug 30
Connie Berry (Ralls) Aug 30

Hope you all have great birthdays!!!!


If you know the birthday of a collector friend drop me a line by clicking the comment bar at the bottom of this story!

Joke Of The Week

Entertainment news......Ball State University is naming its new mass communications building after famed alum David Letterman....The long time late night talk show host graduated from Ball State in 1970.

The school says naming the new building after Dave is a no brainer....after all the design plans for the building include two wings separated by a gap in the front.

We've known for a long time that American astronauts have been known for "having the right stuff"...there was even a movie about the space program with the same name.....what we didn't know until last week the right stuff was rum and coke....

Nasa is investigating a report that came out last week that says some of the worlds most talented scientists have been allowed to lift off for space with their own mixture of rocket fuel in their system...

That's right, lifting off for space while drunk....it turns out the process is known as getting a Buzz Aldrin.

Nasa says it's reviewing its code of conduct manual...and is considering altering the book to include a new policy of a two drink maximum on each flight.

Coincidence...or????

I'm getting into the radio controlled airplane hobby.....purchased my first plane a couple Saturday's ago.

I've always wanted to get involved. When I played little league baseball we played at a park that had nine fields. It was located West of Overland Park in the Southwest corner of Shawnee Mission Park. During games you could always hear and sometimes see remote controlled planes being flown in the distance.

Also, my Dad was a b-25 pilot in WWII. I heard tons of stories, as I posted around Memorial Day I often didn't listen as a pre-teen I was more worried about getting outside so I didn't miss the action across the street at the home of a family that had nine kids. But over the years I guess his stories stuck with me more than I thought because I have always been fascinated by flight and this seems like a way to get in touch with some of those memories.

I showed up at the field where this r/c club flies and met a man who was there. We small talked about the club, the plane I purchased etc. During our small talk he mentioned a B-25 had just flown past and I was disappointed I had missed that.

As we waited for the arrival of the man who is training me on flying, the gentleman I had met asked to start my plane and fine tune the engine which is gas powered and I couldn't have been more excited after having to wait a week after purchasing the plane before being able to get it in flight.

We gassed it up, hooked up the glow plug warmer, and on the first spin of the prop the plane revved up. I thought to myself...how cool is this! But, just second later and it couldn't have been more than 25 or 30 seconds later, off from the distance, taking off from Neosho's Hugh Robinson Airport on a slow thunderous climb was the B-25. It slowly climbed several hundred feet and banked to the East, slowly banking for its flight South. The turn brought the warbird directly overhead. The growl of the twin engines was low and throaty and memories and thoughts of my Dad flooded my mind. In a visual that lasted only a minute or so I felt like I had lived through his time spent in WWII.

Seeing the aircraft in flight brought his stories to life and after living without him for 18 years, he passed away in 1989, I never felt closer and though probably a coincidence with uncanny timing it did make me look over my shoulder to see if he was there.

Campaign Finance Alert!

Did you all see last week where the Missouri Supreme Court unexpectedly ruled the unlimited campaign contribution allowances that were part of HB 1900 were unconstitutional?

Based on that ruling the Missouri Ethics Commission held an emergency meeting and determined candidates and committees are once again bound by the contribution limits applicable in 2006.

As of Thursday, July 19, 2007 the following contribution limits have been reinstated:


1. Statewide office: $1,275 per election from individuals, $12,775 per election from political party committee's.

2. State Senate: $650 per election from individuals, $6,400 per election from political party committees.

3. State Representative: $325 per election from individuals, $3,200 per election from political party committees.

So how does the ruling effect our races at the county level?

All other offices including judicial positions are bound by amounts influenced by the population of the electoral district and according to the latest decennial census goes as follows:

1. Under 100,000 population: $325 individual, $3,250 political parties.

2. 100,000-250,000 population: $650 individual, $6,500 political parties.

3. 250,000 or more population: $1,275 individual, $12,750 political parties.


Keep in mind the amounts listed above also relate to in-kind contributions.

If you have questions or concerns contact the Missouri Ethics Commission for clarification and/or leave me a comment in the comment section at the end of this story.

Joke Of The Week

The David Beckam soccer craze continues to grab headlines across the country...now the California legislature is involved...passing as bill which prohibits shoe make Addidas from selling replicas of the soccer shoes Beckam wears.

The shoes are made out of kangaroo skin...but that's not why they are banning the shoes...it's because when Beckam wears the shoes he always tries to carry to the soccer ball in the front of his shorts.

The legislator's didn't stop there as they continued their sweeping soccer shoe reform work...also sent to the desk of Governor Terminator is a bill banning the reproduction of soccer shoes made from the leathered skin of Phyllis Diller.

Hey, the star of the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe turned 18 yesterday. What a birthday this was.....as by turning 18 he gains access to over 40 million dollars earned by making the magical trilogy....

Concerned about a wild run of extravagant spending Radcliffe says not to worry as he's not the type to go and buy a fleet of expensive sports cars.......instead...all he wants is Paris Hilton's phone number.