Commission demands weekly testing updates for senior tax bill software before mailing

Commissioners pressed county staff for a higher tempo of updates on software testing and operational readiness for the Senior Real Estate Tax Relief bill run, citing prior years' mailing and billing problems. A commissioner requested "I wanna have an update every week. Not monthly," and staff agreed to provide weekly reports until bills are mailed.

Administrative Services Director Deanna Jacobs and the county administrator said the vendor testing is ongoing; multiple test environments are in use and staff are checking several parcels per TCA to validate SB190 calculations. County staff reported arranging bank/payment contingencies, separate processing windows and a change in bill color for SB190 to reduce errors. Staff declined to guarantee zero issues but said they were aiming to resolve outstanding vendor items (for example, excluding a state blind pension fund from the SB190 cap) before the levies are certified. Commissioners asked for concrete timelines and more comprehensive test runs to gain confidence that the upcoming mailing will not repeat previous failures.