Mitchell County treasurer says online payment vendor double-billed and failed to process scheduled tax payments

Mitchell County Treasurer Shannon told the Board of Supervisors on April 7 that the county’s online payment contractor, GovTech Catalyst, experienced multiple errors in late March that affected property-tax payments.

Shannon said a subset of payments was double-billed in mid-March and that scheduled payments due on March 31 did not process for many taxpayers. The vendor performed one-day ACH reversals for some double charges, and county staff manually voided and reentered more than 100 affected payments in Mitchell County to remove penalties and restore correct balances.

“The file was locked down Friday and Saturday because people were going in thinking they had paid and then they hadn’t — so that made double payments,” the treasurer said, urging patience while the county and vendor corrected records. She told the board the county received spreadsheets and a zip file from the vendor listing affected transactions and that most corrections were completed by April 6.

Shannon estimated thousands of scheduled payments statewide were impacted and said the county retained $20,810.85 from motor-vehicle collections for the month. She also said the county’s RFP process for an online-billing vendor is scheduled for this year and that officials will evaluate alternatives after these failures.

Board members asked for clear documentation the county can provide to escrow companies and taxpayers that their payments were accepted; the treasurer said she prepared a statement for lenders and will continue outreach. No formal action was taken beyond approving the treasurer’s monthly report.