 National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C. Vol. 33, No. 9 * May 7, 2001 Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story
What Debt? When public sector debt collection is discussed, many elected and appointed county officials quickly comment that they don’t have any significant debt owed to their county. They tend to think of property taxes as the county’s only “receivable” and the vast majority of citizens do pay their property taxes on time. Those who don’t can generally expect interaction with the county tax collector. Few local government officials are aware of just how much money they are losing each year by not collecting what is owed the county. Nationally, estimates of unrecovered fees for services such as emergency medical and ambulance, parking and traffic fines, child support, court fines and hospital charges range from $10 billion to $40 billion annually. Identifying where debt lies is often the first challenge. Few local governments have a centralized collection function that pursues receivables for all departments. Consequently, the emphasis placed on collection can vary widely from department to department even within the same county. County services that may accumulate debt are:
It’s difficult for individual departments to effectively collect the funds owed them. The staff training and software necessary are expenses most cannot afford. This is where NACo Financial Services Center’s Debt Collection Program can help. Through its partnership with Lockheed Martin IMS, NACo can complement existing internal efforts by coordinating all of the county’s collections and providing a consistent and effective debt collection process. (For more information on the Debt Collection Program, contact Nancy Irish at (202) 661-8824 or nirish@naco.org.) |
