Because of action taken by the Breathitt County Fiscal Court, the rate you’ll be paying on one of your property taxes this year will be a little lower than last year. And on the other property taxes, the rate will be the same as what you’re paying now.In that special session called last Friday morning, the Court made the motion to set the Real Property Tax rate at 9.1 cents per one hundred dollars, which Judge Harvey J. Richardson said was lower than the current rate of 9.8 cents per hundred.

They also set the Personal Property Tax rate at 11.2 cents per hundred dollars, which is the same as the current rate. In addition, this year’s Bank Franchise Tax rate remains the same, at .018 cents per hundred dollars. And the Motor Vehicle and Watercraft Tax rate also is the same as last year’s, with the rate being 11.2 cents per hundred dollars.

The special session was requested by County Court Clerk Tony Watts, who addressed court members on concerns his office had not only about the tax rates, but also what to do about mailing out the tax bills, as well as possible action on purchasing a tax program for the Sheriff’s Department.

Before the Court voted to approve this year’s tax rates, they discussed the tax bill situation, and when to send the bills to county residents. “I want to get the tax bills out by October 1st, instead of November 1st,” said Richardson, who was in attendance along with Commissioners Arch Johnson, Tim Spencer and Jeff Noble. “I’ve had people complain about the tax bills coming out before the holidays, which they say is not a good time to pay them.” Watts replied, “We will actually send out a bill this year, just like we used to, instead of postcards like we did last year.”

County Attorney Brendon Miller also commented on the postcards, adding, “I too have heard a lot of complaints from people who don’t like the tax bills coming out on postcards.” Since Watts had mentioned that a discussion of the tax forms was on the agenda, and that nothing had to be accomplished on that during the meeting, the Court decided to take action on the matter later, more likely during their regular meeting on August 28th.

Earlier in the session, Watts told court members that they could choose from two companies who would provide the programs for the Sheriff’s Office. “Presently, Dependable Data is the company we’ve used to print tax bills for us, but the man in charge of this for them died. We also have an offer from Government Utility Technology Tax Service, or ‘GUTTS’. But they won’t give us a price on printing the tax bills.”

Watts pointed out that it was his job to see that the tax bills are printed, and that Sheriff Ray Clemons and his staff could have the situation taken care of, by their office taking over the duty. “We’re looking at approving $9,368 for the Sheriff to take over what Dependable Data’s doing for us.”

Afterwards, the Court voted to approve a motion to purchase the software and training for one year for the Sheriff’s Office from Data Design of Richmond, at a cost of $5,235. Another motion was made to install a hard drive for the computer, also from Data Design, at $4,133. And they voted to amend it let County Treasurer Ken Back transfer money from the General Fund to pay for the computer system. “This will save us in the long run,” said Clemons after the vote was taken.