Vanderburgh County Treasurer Rick Davis announced to the Vanderburgh County Council on Wednesday that he has slashed his proposed 2011 budget by 11.9%. Davis, in his first term as County Treasurer, credited his idea for printing property tax bills in-house rather than through a third-party vendor as the main reason his budget has been trimmed by $75,994 from 2010 to 2011. In five years, Davis told the council the project would amount to at least $82,000 in savings for just the bill printing line item.
Davis said the line item in his budget for bill printing is only $15,000 for 2012, $50,000 less than what was budgeted each of the two previous years, and $40,000 less than 2008. The County Council will conduct budget hearings in earnest on Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Davis’ presentation also detailed how his office has increased productivity not only for his office, but other county offices as well. Davis credited the County Council’s approval for the purchase of two heavy duty printers producing 6,000 combined prints per hour, as well as equipment that folds and inserts documents into envelopes at a speed of 4,300 per hour. Davis had predicted to the Council that once the printers and folder/inserter arrived at the Civic Center that he would be able to help the Auditor’s Office and the Assessor’s Office print, fold and insert documents into envelopes for mass mailings the county offices perform on an annual basis. But once the equipment arrived, he was surprised to learn that other offices, including the Election Office and the Sheriff’s Office, were interested in using the equipment, too. Davis noted that his office is now planning to help the Sheriff’s Office print, fold and insert 10,000 Tax Warrants into envelopes soon. He also said his office helped the Election Office print every poll book that was used during the Primary Election on May 4, saving that office countless hours of work.
Davis told the Council that new property tax billing software has also enabled his office to eliminate one person from his staff at a savings of $31,300 in 2010 alone, a savings that will add up year after year.
Davis said the in-house bill project did not come as a sacrifice to the taxpayers as far as service is concerned. He noted his office increased the amount of time taxpayers had to pay their bills by 50% — from an 18-day average for seven straight years – to 27 days’ notice this year. Davis said he had a personal goal of giving taxpayers at least 30 days’ notice in 2011.
County Council President Russ Lloyd Jr. commended Davis for his printing efforts, and noted that he was pleased that the money that was spent on the equipment and supplies for the project all came locally, rather than going out of state.
Davis also thanked the County Council for backing his proposal from the onset. The County Council approved spending $84,278.15 in startup costs for the project. The bulk of that money was spent on the folder/inserter, which cost $56,708, and $20,000 for the two printers and enough toner cartridges to print about 3 years’ worth of bills. Representatives from Southern Business Machines, an Evansville company that sold the equipment to the County Treasurer’s Office, were on hand and told the Council that the equipment should last about 10 years, but with proper maintenance may last even longer.
Good job Rick! I love the way your mind works.
Based on the information in this article, the equipment has almost paid for itself in one year of use.
How much will your inter-department efforts save the Sheriff and Election Departments?
Voters, please keep a image of the work being done by Rick Davis in your mind and ask candidates what they will do to cut costs if they are elected.
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