The county treasurer website underwent a major revision to calculate penalties on delinquent taxes "on the fly".  Treasurers have three options for the computation:  1.5% a month with no grace, 1.5% a month with 15 days grace or the state system method.  With the new revision, penalties are automatically updated at 12:00 a.m. on the appropriate  date(s).  We have also added a new "combination" search which allows users to search both current and past records in one place.  We include a "print-friendly" page for printing all the summary information we have for a name or a parcel.  The hard-to-find name search has been reworked to make it more friendly.

We have added the option for county assessors to include the CAMA gross assessed value if they opt to do so.  The tax estimator was enhanced to include estimates for personal as well as real property.  Land areas (lot sizes) have been added to the CAMA "more details" page for websites which support them.

The county treasurer and county assessors websites no longer require the user to enter search terms in all caps.  The hard-to-find location search was improved to allow users to select ALL cities, enabling them to locate records where no city was entered; to find rural locations; and to find records in which the street is known, but not the city.

We've implemented many changes to the countywide sites.  The new sites include a page for each officer with photos, links and information about the office.   In addition to uploading agendas and minutes for public meetings, counties can also post sheriff and commissioner sales.  Properties posted can be linked to the assessor's and/or treasurer's sites for more information about the property, including property photos if they are available on the assessor's site.  Counties can also post "invitations to bid."  Be sure to notice the new Photo Gallery recently added to Mayes county.

The county assessor site now includes a mobile-home VIN search to help officials track "frequent movers."  This search is a part of each counties website, but there is also a cross-county search linked from the Assessor Portal.  While the number of counties is small at the present time, we hope to quickly add counties to make this feature of the website as "statewide" as possible.  New information available in the vin search results includes the tag number, information about movement, and comments.

County assessors can opt to include sales and/or CAMA information on their websites.  Users can search sales by price, square footage, acreage, location, property use and grantor/grantee.  All searches are filtered by signed date.  There is also an "advanced search" designed for real estate professionals allowing them to search by square footage, acreage, and price.

For counties that currently offer "search by account," we have added two new ways to search--by business name and by account number.  While the business name search may be somewhat "misnamed" since it will find businesses as well as non-businesses, it is a much friendlier way to search for a business, especially when the business name may take several unofficial forms.

We are happy to report that the new websites which we implemented last fall have performed very well and have been extremely stable.  We have recently made some minor changes, adding custom error messages and an improved "unpaid" taxes search.  Congratulations to the treasurers who have used our online payments by credit card to collect over one million tax dollars over the last two years.

We are now offering a searchable site, available free to the public, for county assessors.  While most assessors in Oklahoma have one or more sites geared to real estate professionals and abstractors, these sites require a subscription and contain information which is not required by the public.  Our county assessor sites incorporate most of the features of the county treasurer sites.  In addition to providing current ownership information (as opposed to ownership at the time the tax rolls were "frozen"), these sites break down the assessment, offer a convenient tax estimator for people considering purchasing or improving property, and photos (if available).  If the treasurer also has a site with us, there are links directly from the assessor's site to the tax record on the treasurer's site.  How cool is that?

County treasurer and county websites have undergone a major conversion to take advantage of new asp.net technology.   Our web server was also upgraded at the time the new version was implemented.  The new sites offer search results which can be sorted "on the fly" and a new, more sophisticated menu which makes every page accessible with one click.  In addition, the new treasurer sites offer an "individual" name search which has been improved to eliminate common problems associated with differences in the use of commas and spaces between last name and first name.  They also offer a very-friendly "business" name search which doesn't require the "exact" business name to locate the record.   Perhaps the most significant enhancement is the implementation of a modified "shopping cart" for paying multiple tax items at one time.  Seventeen of twenty-three counties currently take online payments. 

The new County sites are designed to display information from a database which can be updated by a designated county official  simply logging into a password protected update center and completing the update form.  The process is quite intuitive and requires very limited instruction -- everything needed appears on the page.  Once the official clicks "Update" the changes are immediately reflected on the website.

We have developed a website to provide general information relative to the county.  These websites offer an overview of county officials, complete contact information for county offices and a "where to go" guide; schedules for official holidays and public meetings, links to searchable county-data sites, links to county- and government-related websites, and forms to download.  The site also incorporates a method to "upload" agendas and proceedings for public meetings.  Current and "archived" documents are easily accessible from the website.

We have implemented our enhanced Pay On Line in fourteen counties.  We have incorporated input from treasurers attending our June user's meeting and those attending our Pay Online Implementation meeting in August.

Treasurer's with an Official Site can get an e-mail address from okcountytreasurers.com.  If you would like to have a professional sounding email address or an additional address for your office, contact Paula.

Our first user group meeting for all web clients and perspective clients was held at Red River Vo-Tech in Duncan on June 21, 10:00 a.m.   The meeting was well attended and very productive.  We were especially fortunate to have two representative from Official Payments Corporation present to discuss options for taking credit card payments and answer questions.  We believe that this sort of input will insure the best websites possible.

We have added a number of new features to the website(s) during the past months.  If you haven't looked at your site recently, you might want to check out these new features.

• GENERAL INFORMATION ADDED including important dates, information about sales, fees and mortgages
• A CLICKABLE MAP to streamline the web portal
• A NEW LOOK AND A CUSTOMIZED HOME PAGE with links to other information about the county
• ENHANCED SEARCH BY LOCATION screens designed to find records with miscoded property locations
• VIEW REPORTS link includes the Paid Tax Due, searchable by school district; and reports on properties with delinquent and back taxes
• FEES & INTEREST added to the TOTAL DUE column on all tables
• PAID BY added to the Payment Detail (Click on Tax Amount) and included in the Payment Information on the printable detail page (Click on Name)
• TIME of update now included in LAST UPDATE Information and on the printable detail page
• PROPERTY LOCATION now included on the printable detail page (click on name)
• PRINTABLE DETAIL PAGE for past records (click on Name) similar to one for current records
• SITE MAP to reach every page in the web with one click
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