 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name's Adam Payne, County Chairman, actually County Administrator. Yeah, let's switch rules now. Yes, I think in 200 programs I've only slipped that once. County Administrator and co-host of this program with County Board Chairman Roger Distruty. And today we're very pleased to have Laura Henning Lorenz with us, our County Treasurer. Welcome, Laura. Thank you for having me. Good to have you with us. As you know, every month we strive to bring a different department to you to talk about roles and responsibilities, and often the department head is here. And Laura, as the department head of the Treasurer's Office has been for a number of years now. And Laura, please begin by just sharing a little bit about yourself and how long you've been County Treasurer. Okay. Well, I took my oath of office in January of 2003. So yes, I have been with the county for a few years. And well, we're pretty busy in our office on a daily basis. We, today, for example, is a good example where we've been taking care of taxpayers throughout the day. We're also dealing with our local assessors and our municipalities. So we're usually contacted either in person through email or through the telephone. Now, you took oath of office in 2003, you said? Yes, I did. So it's been well over 10 years. And I know prior to that you had some experience in our finance department. I did. So you've just got excellent background working in Sheboygan County. What inspired you to run for County Treasurer? Well, I have an accounting degree and I wanted to utilize that and continue to serve people. My father was a public servant and very encouraging to have his children be public servants. So that's pretty much what led me. And since I didn't have a law enforcement background, as he did, accounting was where I preferred to be. So that's where it took me to working. I started out in the accounting department in the clerk of courts and then transferred to the finance department. I enjoy that quite a bit. And then I left the county for a few years to work in the public sector. And then when the county treasurer announced her retirement, I thought, well, this would be a good time for me to run for office and to see how things go. And that turned out well. And you have roots in the community. You've been from Sheboygan County for quite some time. Oh, yes. Yes, I've been born. I was born in Sheboygan and lived in the city of Sheboygan, town of Wilson. And now I'm in the town of Lima. So, yes. Well, very good. Well, again, thank you for joining us today. And you just started a little bit, but please give a big picture snapshot, roles and responsibilities of the county treasurer's office. Yes. So I mentioned we deal every day with the public. That's our main, main thing we're doing all day is serving the public. But we also receive all of the deposits for the county. We are responsible for all the banking for the county. One very important role is that we're responsible for tax collection as a whole. And after all the taxes are collected, then we are responsible for distribution to all the various taxing jurisdictions of that money. So we have to reconcile it to the penny and then buy certain and specific dates, distribute that money. We also take care of supporting our municipalities while they collect taxes during the first installment in December and January. We are responsible for collecting the second installment taxes in June and July and collecting delinquent taxes all year round. We do tax foreclosures and that pretty much encompasses what we do. We also do real property listing. So we're, we're a very busy department. Yeah. A lot going on. Yes. So we're working with the public and really challenging work when you're responsible for collecting taxes, particularly property taxes, which folks generally don't like to see that bill come in the mail, especially around the holidays. You know, it takes a good solid background and certainly you have to have a good way and mannerism with the public as you interact with them and respond to questions and make sure that they understand that tax bill and what it all means. Yes. What staff do you have? Including myself, there are seven people in our office. And total budget? Yep. For 2014, we have an operating budget of $595,000. So yes, we're, and we're keeping that on track, Adam. You've done a very good job keeping that on track. Let's go back to the real property listing responsibilities. You really stepped up a number of years ago and took on some additional responsibilities not only from our planning office as part of a consolidation, but also from the city of Sheboygan. Please give our viewers a little snapshot of what's the role of a real property lister. You know, we all see you and know you as the county treasurer. What are the real property listing responsibilities in your office? Okay. So there's two ladies that full-time work strictly on that. So if we have two different types of transfers, if you will. So let's say, Adam, I have a one-acre parcel and I sell it to you and nothing's changed. It's one acre for me selling to one acre to you. We use the term a straight transfer. So there's many, many, many straight transfers that take care of, that are recorded in the Register of Deeds Office on a daily basis. So Monday through Friday, people, attorneys, title companies are constantly filing those deeds, those types of transfers in the Register of Deeds Office. The other type of conveyance that is recorded regularly would be what we call a split. And those are, there could be several different definitions for a split. For example, let's say I have a 15-acre parcel and I take five acres out of that and I sell the five acres to Chairman to Strudy. Then we have, that's one type of split. Or let's say, for example, I have three parcels and they're all together next to each other and I want to combine them into one. That's a split. Or let's say I have two pieces of property and I just want the boundaries to be changed. I'll still have two pieces of property in the beginning, but I want the boundary lines changed. I'll end up with two pieces of property at the end. That's another type of split. So anytime there are boundary changes, those types of transactions that are recorded in the Register of Deeds Office, that would be a split transaction. So then on a daily basis we receive reports from the Register of Deeds Office that we download and then we take care of updating all of the assessment and the tax rules. So that's an overview and a big picture of what happens on a regular and daily basis. And it's tough to give a snapshot of that role because of course there's a lot going on and very involved, but if folks have more information about that, if they're thinking of selling or they have questions about their tax bill, obviously they can stop or call your office at the County Treasurer in our Administration Building. Right in the Administration Building is the Register of Deeds as you said, as well as our Planning and Conservation Department and all have roles with recording legal descriptions and providing maps and information, so a lot of good people to help folks out there. We have maps on the table. You've got a couple of charts here and one is the County Atlas and I know hunting seasons coming around that's certainly on my mind and I imagine you get folks coming to your office or the County Clerk's Office looking for a copy of the Sheboygan County Atlas. Yes, we have an Atlas and I'm glad you termed it that way because some people refer to it as a plat and there are plat maps in this document. However, it also contains road maps, highway maps, there's lake maps in there if you do fishing and the lake maps have the depths of the various lakes in Sheboygan County so it is a group of all different types of good information and yes it is for sale and it is a 2012 version and hopefully in the next year or two we'll have a new version out. Generally we update it every two to four years. Yes. Very good. All right, thank you Laura. I'll turn it over to the County Board Chairman, Roger Disturdi. Thank you Adam. Good to have you with us Laura. You mentioned the tax collecting and that's your key responsibility. Before we prepare the tax bills in December you have various credits that go on the bill. Do you explain a little bit of that? Okay, so there are three different types of potential credits that a person may have on their tax bill. They may have a lottery and gaming credit, there's also a school tax credit and the first dollar credit so there are three of them. And your office certifies these lottery and gaming credits for Sheboygan County too and sometimes there's some discussion on that. People are wondering about it that would be part of your role also. Yes, so every year our office must by law certify our lottery and gaming credit database. So what we do is we have 27 of our 28 municipalities receive their lottery credit data and it basically tells them who is currently receiving a lottery credit and who may be suspect to receiving a lottery credit. Our municipal clerks and treasurers they go through that entire list and they give back to us their recommendations for changes whether we should add or delete. Those folks are very knowledgeable as to what's going on in their communities and they usually know if property is vacant or if somebody is no longer living at a property. So they help us that way. Our office takes care of the entire city of Sheboygan because of its size it is just you know there are probably close to 17,000 parcels. That would be very difficult for just even a few people to get through. So what we do is Jane Dragon has created a database and she has several queries in there. So we're using technology to make that lottery credit certification for the city a little more efficient. So we have mail merges so we can efficiently mail out mailings to the folks in the city of Sheboygan along with forms and we can easily identify a few hundred people that need to tell us whether they should qualify or maybe we should remove them from having a lottery credit versus we used to have to every five years wipe out our entire database to wipe it all out send out over 50,000 postcards and wait for those postcards to come back and rekey all of that in. So this is a much better more efficient process. And what should people do if they get their bill and they feel they should get a credit or they have before and it's not on what's the procedure at that point. So really all a person needs to do is to call our office and let us know that they are questioning their lottery credit. The other thing they could do is take a look at their bill from a prior year and their lottery credit would be stated right here on the bill. So we haven't made any major format changes to the bill and it's always located right there on the bill. And throughout the county, how many dollars of credits are received by county taxpayers? Do you have that number or is it? Sure. The lottery credit is based on your school district and that's a number that's calculated by the state of Wisconsin and provided to our office annually. So the average lottery credit for 2013 was anywhere from $70 to about $129. It was in that range. Okay, thank you. And then we often hear about the first dollar credit and how does that play in the mix? Okay. So the first dollar credit, it started in 2009. It has a fun history so I have to tell you about it. At least I'm excited to talk about history. Maybe the first person on earth who said the first dollar credit has a fun history. It is. I really do enjoy talking about history with our office and how things go on and off the tax bill. But essentially in 2009 our legislature felt that it was important to provide this credit so law was made and $15 million initially was utilized from the Department of Transportation to provide tax relief for the real estate taxes for most property owners. And it started out averaging at about $30 per parcel. And today it's about, I believe it's between $57 and $90 per parcel. Again, it has to do with what school district you're in. Now the really cool thing about the first dollar credit is nobody has to do anything to qualify for it because everything is automated. And it's real simple. If you have a real estate bill and you have improvements on your property, meaning a house or a barn or a shed or some type of improvement, you automatically get the first dollar credit. So you don't have to call our office. We don't have to contact you. It's an automated credit that goes on the bills. Thank you, Laura. You know, Laura, I lose track of time. I know you said you've been the county treasurer now for, since 2003, right? Yes. And then I've been the county administrator or administrative coordinator back in the day since 1999. And I can recall, come tax season, that hallway just being packed with people coming to pay their tax bill and waiting in line. And I often thought to myself, why would you stand there for 45 minutes an hour to wait in line when there's a drop box right outside? Or certainly most people mail in their tax payment. But it was a couple, few years ago, where you made a change that allowed people, rather than to come stand in line, the opportunity to go to their own personal bank or a bank in their area. What was it that you changed that really, I think, has worked out quite well? I haven't seen a line since. So in 2009, we asked our municipalities to collect their own first installment taxes. And by law, they are to do the first installment collection unless they have a contract or written agreement with a county. So all of our municipalities started collecting their own taxes, I believe, by 2009 and certainly by 2010. But the nice part about it is, and the nice part about being with peers, is that you learn things, and I knew that other counties were utilizing their local banks to assist them with collecting taxes. So we started doing that when we started, I believe, in 2010, and we started during a second installment collection. So that was completely collected by our office. And we now have 13 local banks, or bank branches, that are assisting our office collecting second installment taxes. The other side of it is that our local municipalities, our towns, our villages, and our cities, they are also starting to utilize banks if they haven't already. And it's really a nice service for our taxpayers, where there's so many places to collect taxes, there aren't long lines anymore at any one place. Very good, very good. Yeah, I don't recall seeing a line in the administration building since you've made those improvements. And what kind of feedback have you gotten from the public? I mean, anytime you change something, I'm sure some people were more wondering, is how is this going to work? But overall, what's the kind of feedback you've heard? Well, you know, if you want to call me in December, I can tell you which bank has cookies. So, but in general, we have had a really, really good feedback about it. There are so many other options, too, for paying your taxes that, and we list them on the tax bills now, that's a customized area in December. And if people just read that little section, our municipalities give us plenty of options for the taxpayers to utilize. And speaking of changes, I know that you're always looking to make improvements or garner efficiencies in your office. What else have you recently improved or changed in the treasurer's office? Well, we've been over years, and even this past year, we've been doing streamlining of a lot of our processes. We look at them, we say, you know, what can we do better here? What can we do quicker? What can we not do quicker? We can't do quicker, but what can we do better? And oftentimes, one of the things that takes us many, many months of work, because we're working with our municipalities and the assessors, is working on the assessment role for all 28 municipalities. That's one big change that we've made as we've streamlined that process. It's a pretty slick process now internally. And we've done that with several other things. Lottery credit, where we have the database now and we have technology that we're using. And you've also taken a more active role with property that has been foreclosed on. And I know your office has always had a role in that, but what I've observed the last few years in particular is you've been far more proactive in getting out there and making sure there's signage that says this property is available. Contact the county treasurer's office. What have you done to improve that process and make sure that if there, unfortunately, is a property that's been foreclosed upon or someone has just passed away and there's no errors, how do we make sure that we make people aware of that and help them through that transaction? Well, to start with, when we are going through the process of tax foreclosure, one of the things that happens that's a protection to our taxpayers is the court in Sheboygan County appoints a guardian ad litem. And that generally attorney, that attorney will contact every single person on the list and will make sure that they are competent, make sure that they are not active military. And there might be some other, a few other criteria that they make sure. And then they do have conversation with the taxpayer and sometimes we found out that the taxpayer may be afraid or a little hesitant of contacting us. Once they talk to the guardian ad litem and the guardian ad litem assures them that, you know, we're here to help them too. We usually hear from them shortly thereafter. So we work with many different entities to try to help them, whether it's health and human services or consumer credit counseling. And perhaps it's even their bank where they have their mortgage. But we work with the people. We try to get as many properties off the list as possible. Once we do take a property over, yes, we do try to market it. We try to sell it for the best price possible. But our main goal is to get these properties producing tax bills again and back on the tax rolls. So, yes, we are trying to keep the number of foreclosed property and that's in our inventory at a minimum. And recouping past due taxes that are owed to the county and we may have had to allocate to other municipalities or for other purposes. And of course, we rely on that revenue to pay the bills. So that's part of it as well. Well, you've done a nice job with that. I had close friends from the Plymouth area that were looking at a home and were seeking some advice on a foreclosure and a possible home that might be for sale through foreclosure. And they didn't know where to turn or how to handle that. And it was new to them and they called me and asked for some guidance. And I called Laura and Laura just did an excellent job walking them through the process, giving them some helpful things to think about it throughout the process. And I know to this day they're very appreciative of that. So thank you, Laura. You're welcome. Only have a few minutes left here, but long-term goals. What are you looking at long-term to further improve the service provided by the Treasurer's Office? Well, I do enjoy streamlining and making things more efficient. One big, big project that we're kicking off and I've had conversation again recently with our IT department would be new tax software, tax meaning, tax assessment, real property listing all bundled in one software. So we're looking to do that. That would be a very, very big project in need of a lot of time. And through that process, then we would continue to do more streamlining that we're looking forward to. Very good. Well, any concluding thoughts or any suggestions for taxpayers as we soon will have fall upon us in the tax season? Anything you wanted to share with our viewers? Well, we don't have any big or new changes at this time, which I think that will, rest assured, be good news to our taxpayers. Tax bills we're planning on having out again in December. So nothing new or changing, I think, is good news. Certainly, we want taxpayers to call our office and they can call us at 4-5, actually area code 920-459-3015. Otherwise, they can certainly email us at countytreasurer at shaboykincounty.com. And we will attend to their email as well. And if you're looking for even more information, we have an excellent county website that not only provides information about Laura and the county treasurer's office, but all of our departments. And that's a good way to tap in as well into county government and make sure that you could be heard or get information. So Laura, thank you for your nice overview today. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Speaking of tax bills and fall before us, it is the county budget process season. Every year, we have an annual budget development process. And Chairman Distruti, the executive of the finance committee, have a major role in establishing a goal. We ultimately establish individual targets for all of our departments. And our track record, really, in this county has been second to none. The county board and all of our department heads have done such a good job working collaboratively with our budget process. And I think we've delivered property tax relief now four of the last seven years. So we've really worked hard to hold the line. We intend to hold the line for 2015 as well. So hopefully those tax bills won't be too much of a rude awakening. We're looking to capture net new construction, revenue associated with net new construction, which will bring in up to maybe $280,000 countywide, because we're looking at less than a 1% increase in net new construction. So that makes things challenging when you have $127 million budget, 825 employees, and employees looking for cost of living increase in that 1%, 2% range. We've got our work cut out for us. But next month, we'll have Terry Hansen, our finance director here. And we're going to discuss a little bit of our budget process and where we're at and how it's looking. So until then, thank you so much for joining us. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact Laura, or certainly your county board supervisor, Chairman Roger Distruder, or myself. Thanks for joining us.