BERRYVILLE — Clarke County is procuring a brand new software program system that would make it simpler to know tax payments.
The Clarke County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to spend $259,000 to contract with Avenity Inc. for the software program. It can substitute Munis software program, offered by Tyler Applied sciences, used inside the county income commissioner’s and treasurer’s workplaces.
Reserve funds within the county’s coffers have been appropriated.
Taxation software program is used to generate actual property and private property tax payments in addition to monitor particular person residential and enterprise account balances.
Munis, quick for municipal info system, is a software program system utilized by many native governments. It can proceed for use in different Clarke County departments.
Officers say, nevertheless, utilizing Munis mainly has been a nightmare for county workers who deal with tax cash and different income.
“For years,” County Administrator Chris Boies wrote in a report back to the supervisors, they’ve “tried to make this method work to appropriately course of on a regular basis transactions, produce clear payments for our residents and usually handle our tax billing processes.”
However, “we’ve reached the conclusion that we are able to’t do something any completely different to make the software program perform correctly, and Tyler has proven no real interest in correcting the deficiencies,” Boies wrote.
County workers has been analyzing completely different choices for greater than a 12 months. They discovered Avenity’s know-how — already in use or deliberate to be used in eight different Virginia localities — to be useful when it was demonstrated to them. Boies mentioned different localities have reported having optimistic experiences with it.
Clarke County intends to have the software program up and operating by 2024 on the newest.
The one downside to utilizing it, officers indicated, is the annual operational value of about $70,000. The 12 months value for utilizing Munis’ taxation software program is barely about $17,000.
Boies maintains the additional cash can be value it.
“We’re at present not offering a excessive degree of service to our residents,” he instructed the supervisors.
Payments are arduous to supply and complicated to those that obtain them, Boies mentioned. Additionally, the Munis software program isn’t in a position to deal with variations inside Virginia’s tax construction, he mentioned.
Complaints from each workers and the general public are heard day by day, he talked about.
“It’s merely not a practical system” for taxation functions, mentioned supervisors Chairman David Weiss, who represents the Buckmarsh District.
“We will need to have readable payments so taxpayers perceive” what they’re being billed for, added Millwood District Supervisor Terri Catlett, the board’s vice chairwoman.
Avenity relies in Northern Virginia, whereas Tyler Applied sciences relies in Texas, its web site exhibits.
Different localities have reported having comparable troubles in coping with Tyler, Boies mentioned.
Berryville District Supervisor Matthew Bass, a lawyer, requested whether or not the county has any authorized recourse. Boies mentioned he’ll talk about that with Robert Mitchell, the county’s part-time legal professional.
