By Andy Grimm, Post-Tribune
agrimm@post-trib.com
CROWN POINT-- Twelve hours after the close of the 2009 tax season, and with some checks still to be counted, Lake County had collected three quarters of the tax dollars due.
Figures released Tuesday by Treasurer John Petalas showed a total of $497,373,919.16 in personal and real estate property taxes were paid by the Monday deadline for the second installment of 2008 tax bills.
That left $161,366,781.70 in outstanding payments, slightly less than 25 percent of the total owed for 2008 countywide, about 5 percent better than collections last year on the final day for second installment payments, Petalas said.
Griffith-St. John Township notched the lowest collection rate, with only 57 percent of taxes paid. A collection rate of lower than the mid 90 percent range is crippling for municipal governments, but Petalas said the county has not yet finished tabulating all payments and that late payments have not begun rolling in.
The 2008 tax bills were the first sent out reflecting state-mandated tax caps of 1.5 percent of a home's assessed value, 2.5 percent for rental homes and 3.5 percent for commercial property.
The caps and a small uptick in the economy may have led to slightly improved collections.
Taxpayers who have missed the deadline for payments can set up a payment plan with the Treasurer's office.