That was not surprising. When taxpayers came to the finance department to pay the state personal property tax on their cars, they would wait in several lines for up to three hours at peak time to pay the fee and get the car decal that proved that they had paid their annual assessment.
After the newly created tax administration department took over collections, everyone in the department was put to work on the back-up problem. The week before the taxes are due, even those who normally have nothing to do with tax collection--including managers--help out as either line monitors or express cashiers. Line monitors make sure people waiting to pay have filled out paperwork correctly and are in the right line. Express cashiers sit at tables with cash boxes and decals, ready to collect payments from people who have no questions or problems.
Taxpayers are now typically in and out of line in less than five minutes. "As people leave the building, they hunt down a manager and say what good service they got," Greenlief reports. Customers now rate the improved process a 3.8 on a scale of 0 for worst to 4 for best.
The overhaul didn't stop at in-person service. Phone service was restructured to decrease on-hold time from more than 20 minutes to less than 20 seconds on average, and the county's Web site was configured to accept both credit cards and e-checks, which cost taxpayers less to use. Soon registration of vehicles for tax purposes will be available online.
