Thursday, January 13, 2000
Campbell may group cities' fees
Ease in collection a goal
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLD SPRING — Campbell County Fiscal Court, taking a cue from neighboring Kenton County, wants to form a cooperative with its cities to make collection of business license fees and payroll taxes easier.
At a joint Fiscal Court/mayors meeting Wednesday,Judge-executive Steve Pendery explained that the county is about to reorganize its finance department to more aggressively collect the fees and taxes.
Mr. Pendery told the mayors that, as the county improves its methods of collection, it could “offer the same service to the cities in our county.”
He pointed out that Kenton County established a city-county system several years ago, in which the county's tax department handles collection of all taxes and fees and then reimburses the cities for their share. There is a single countywide license fee.
“This eliminates the need for the cities to do a lot of paperwork, and at the same time lets the cities continue to assist the county in enforcement,” Mr. Pendery said.
He said he met recently with Kenton County and city officials and was told that the cooperative effort has resulted in better compliance with payment of payroll tax and license fees, has eased the burden of the cities, and has resulted in more revenue for the cities. Only Covington does not participate in the plan.
“If we could improve our overall compliance by just 10 percent, it could mean as much as an additional $500,000 year to the county,” he said.
Fort Thomas City Coordinator Jeff Earlywine said his city wants to work with the county on a cooperative collection effort. “I think this is something that could help everyone,” he said.
Melbourne Mayor George Koopman said his city could only gain from such a working arrangement with the county “because we don't collect anything now. We have no way to collect fees. This would be a boost for our city.”
Mr. Pendery said the county hopes to have its new finance system up and running by the end of the fiscal year in July.
City and county officials also heard from consultant Paul Linnee regarding an feasibility study under way on merging the county's 911 dispatch system with those in Newport and Fort Thomas.
Mr. Linnee, former head of the Minneapolis fire and police dispatch center, said one of the most popular methods now available for financing a merger/upgrade of a dispatch system is a 911 surcharge on every telephone customer in the county.
“The (Kentucky) Legislature gave counties the ability to place a surcharge on telephone subscribers,” he said. “Generally, the surcharge ranges from $1.50 to $2 a month in other areas. The funds can only be used for anything related to delivery or receipt of 911 calls.”
He said Campbell County has about 44,000 telephones, and a $1 surcharge would amount to $528,000 annually in 911 revenue.
He said he will produce a draft report in early March and deliver a final report by the end of March on the possibility of creating one dispatch system.
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