Edward Leonard

1

• Edward Leonard
• Franklin County Treasurer
• 2008 Budget
• as presented to the
• Franklin County Commissioners
• Mary Jo Kilroy, President
• Paula Brooks
• Marilyn Brown
• November 27, 2007

2
Our Mission

• To bill and collect taxes on real estate,
  personal property, and manufactured homes to
  ensure that the revenues are available for prompt
  distribution to schools, municipalities,
  libraries, and other political subdivisions.
• To manage and invest all monies deposited in the
  Treasury in a professional and prudent manner so
  that the county can operate and provide services
  to citizens, political subdivisions, and agencies
  of Franklin County.
• To build partnerships with other agencies and
  private sector entities to clean up vacant and
  abandoned tax delinquent properties in our
  neighborhoods.
• To increase financial literacy among Franklin
  County residents and to promote foreclosure
  intervention.

3
Our Environment

• Many business environment dynamics affect the
  Treasurers
• Office, including but not limited to the
  following
• Mortgage Defaults and Foreclosure Rates
  (increases phone and foot traffic in the office
  due to increased inquiries regarding delinquent
  taxes).
• Number of new home builds (increases number of
  parcels to manage).
• Number of bankruptcies (increases the number of
  filings to secure our position for debt payment).
• Real estate sales (increase recordkeeping and
  research requirements).
• Mortgage refinancing (increases recordkeeping and
  research requirements).

4
Our Environment (Continued)

• Tax Rates and Valuation changes (increases phone,
  internet and foot traffic in the office due to
  increased inquiries).
• Interest rates (low rates increase home sales and
  decrease interest earnings).
• Unemployment rates (more unemployment increases
  delinquency rates).
• Changes in the Ohio Revised Code (may affect the
  taxes we collect and how we collect them as well
  as permissible investments and authority to
  establish other programs).
• Financial literacy of Franklin County residents
  (knowledge preserves credit rating, ability to
  budget, and provides financial strength).
• Abandoned housing (decreases values of
  neighborhood reducing values and thus reducing
  the tax base for the community).

5
Office Structure

• For purposes of performance based budgeting the
  following chart shows our office structure

6
Office Responsibilities

• The Tax Collection Program is responsible for
  producing tax bills for more than 410,000 parcels
  twice a year including managing over 200,000
  parcels in electronic billing and payment format
  from mortgage servicing companies. This area is
  also primarily responsible for handling most
  customer service inquires.
• The Portfolio Management Program is responsible
  for investing county funds safely and ensuring
  that the Countys cash flow needs are met. It
  also responsible for the investment of bond
  proceeds for both the Courthouse and Huntington
  Park construction projects.
• The Agency Services Program processes all cash,
  check and special payments made by taxpayers to
  various county agencies, to balance the receipts
  and to make daily bank deposits.
• The Escrow Program is responsible for pre-pay and
  direct debit plans that are offered as payment
  options for current real estate tax collections.
• The Delinquent Tax Collection Program is
  responsible for collecting all delinquent taxes
  owed to Franklin County, including Real Estate,
  Personal Property, Public Utility, and
  Manufactured Homes. It has two dedicated funding
  sources DTAC and the Tax Lien Administrative
  Fund.

7
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Processed bank deposits of over 4.6 billion as
  of September 2007.
• Processed over 1.7 billion processed via ACH
  (electronic transfers) for payroll.
• Processed almost 450,000 checks through the bank
  account as of September 2007.
• Increased the number of taxpayers paying online
  from 27,953 to 34,192 as of November 2007.
• Increased the number of taxpayers paying their
  taxes via direct debit by 114 from 3,900 in 2006
  to 8,348 currently.
• Increased the number of taxpayers on the
  prepayment program to 7,865 for 2007.
• Increased the number of delinquent taxpayers in
  the pre-payment program by 121 to 2,572 for
  2007.

8
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Responded to over 80,000 customer inquiries with
  98.4 of all inbound calls handled.
• Produced semi annual real estate tax billings for
  over 410,000 parcels in paper and electronic
  formats.
• Recorded interested earnings of 30,425,231 and
  an additional capital gains of 2,110,595 as of
  November 26, 2007.
• Successfully invested over 149 million in bond
  proceeds for the County Courthouse and Huntington
  Park Construction project.

9
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Created the position of Foreclosure Intervention
  Specialist.
• Mailed 5,000 foreclosure prevention information
  brochures to delinquent taxpayers.
• Mailed over 7,500 brochures containing essential
  resource information about financial assistance
  and education to homeowners who are already in
  the foreclosure process.
• Held monthly foreclosure intervention seminars in
  every quadrant of Franklin County.
• Through the Save Our Homes Task Force
  strengthened partnerships with banks, lenders,
  brokers, non-profit, for profit and other
  agencies to help prevent foreclosure in Franklin
  County.

10
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Office-wide imaging of key records now 100
  complete.
• Returned over 2.8 million surplus payments to
  1,749 taxpayers.
• Implemented the PTAP Program to become a member
  of United Ways Combined Charities Campaign, and
  raised over 2,100 in employee contributions for
  PTAP for 2008.
• Conducted office-wide customer service training
  to foster improved customer service and team
  work.

11
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Increased the number of Treasurers Tips from
  37 in 2006 to 48 in 2007.
• Sponsored and participated in 5 Rebuild Your
  Credit seminars all around Franklin County.
• Continued participation in community outreach
  events and jury pool education.
• Sponsored and participated in Real Money, Real
  World financial education simulations at 12
  different schools around Franklin County.

12
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Successful Tax Lien Sale
• Total 16,200,000
• Sale 5.0 million
• Sub-Sale 1.0 million
• Pre-Sale Collections 4.7 million
• Payment Plans 5.5 million
• The BIG Winners
• Columbus City Schools .. 2,958,000 MRDD
  .. 913,000
• Hilliard Schools 905,000 Childrens
  Services 709,000
• South-Western City Schools 864,000 ADAMH
  262,000

13
2007 Office Accomplishments

• Positive Results of Land Bank Efforts
• Bedford Landfill officially certified closed by
  Ohio EPA and development of golf complex to be
  completed in 2008.
• Parker Marathon in Canal Winchester awaits
  cleanup funding thru ODOD Brownfield Revolving
  Loan Fund.
• Poindexter Towers moves forward.
• Secured control over three abandoned apartment
  buildings in Prairie Township.
• Identified and prioritized 569 parcels for Land
  Bank Foreclosure in City of Columbus.

14
2007 Office Accomplishments
Process review, access to data, and improvements
ensure a more efficient office.
23 days
Efficient collections provide money for the
schools and communities quicker. These counts
include the weekends.
15
The Treasurers Staff Actively Finds Ways to
Share and Utilize Resources

• Building partnerships to develop and communicate
  services to taxpayers facing bankruptcy and
  foreclosure.
• Continued work with community leaders and local
  banks to improve tax collection efforts.
• Continue to work with senior citizens via various
  partnerships such as the Area Office on Aging and
  PTAP.
• Partnered with the Data Center to develop .Net
  technology and improve internet functionality.

16
2008 GOALS

• Successful implementation of the new real estate
  management system and continued programming for
  the FCTS application.
• Develop a user-friendly tax bill.
• Expand foreclosure prevention activities to help
  more homeowners stay in their homes or transition
  out of their homes minimizing the impact on their
  personal finances where possible.
• Pursue more tax delinquent vacant and abandoned
  properties as part of Ohios first County Land
  Bank Program.

17
2008 GOALS (continued)

• Continue to develop financial literacy materials
  and explore opportunities for Franklin County
  residents to take advantage of finance education
  and awareness.
• Continue aggressive effort to collect delinquent
  real and personal property taxes from individual
  and companies.
• Continue to automate processes and provide better
  access to information internally, with other
  agencies and with the public.
• Transition bank account and implement positive
  pay to allow for much improved management of
  warrant issuance and clearing.

18
2008 GOALS (continued)

• Improve taxpayer access to the office via the
  Internet to include more interactive forms.
• Improve tracking and reporting of performance
  measures to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Continue to provide useful staff development
  training, including computer skills, working with
  real estate software, and most importantly,
  customer service.
• Continue to strengthen and value our most
  important resource our staff.

19
Revenue/Expenditure Comparison
Investment earnings and statutory fees collected
by the Treasurers office make us a substantial
net positive contributor to county revenues.
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2008 Budget Highlights

• Providing funding for the REALM replacement and
  continued programming for the FCTS application.
  This includes the funding for a temporary project
  manager to oversee the successful implementation
  of both of these essential projects.
• Development of a new tax bill that will be easier
  to understand and process.
• Replacement of a folder/inserter to facilitate
  the processing of over 150,000 bills and mailings
  internally.
• Continued intensive outreach efforts with respect
  to those at risk for foreclosure and other
  financial hardships.
• Providing greater access to information.
• Building partnerships.

21
Franklin County Treasurer

• Thank you to the Office of Budget and Management,
  LaGrieta Holloway for her assistance in our
  budget request.
• We agree with the final recommendations of the
  Office of Budget and Management, especially for
  the consideration for raises for our staff and
  respectfully request approval of our 2008 budget
  request.