'Tis the season for property taxes and fees

GREEN BAY - Homeowners know, your property tax bill can add up quickly. That's especially true if you don't read your bill carefully.

There are certain fees, mostly from when you pay online.

However, county officials say the added cost, means less impact on the overall tax rate.

Some Brown County residents aren't wasting any time to pay their property taxes.

"It's like an early Christmas present to the State of Wisconsin," said Elliot Ness of Green Bay.

Ness prefers to pay his bill in person.

However county officials say around 2,000 others in Brown County choose to pay online.

"We've had it for several years. It started off slowly, but it's increased every year," said Brown County Treasurer Kerry Blaney.

Blaney says the service is provided through a company called "Point and Pay."    

And if you use a credit card, the company charges a fee, 2.39 percent to be exact.

So for a $3,000 tax bill, you'd pay a service fee of $71. However Blaney says the fee isn't meant to be a surprise.

"It's on the bill, you know, and it's on the back of the bill and plus when you go to the website, it tells you right away before you even process the transaction," Blaney explained. "So there's a lot of information before you even do anything."

The credit card fee isn't uncommon. But in most cases, retailers tend to absorb the added cost.

"It's pretty hard to tell the customer they have to pay an extra 2% on their transaction," explained co-owner of Zeller's Ski and Sports Chris Zeller.

Zeller says it's just the cost of doing business.

"A big month like this, we may have $20,000-$30,000 in credit card processing fees," Zeller said.

But if a governmental body were to pick up the tab, Blaney says the taxpayers would be the ones footing the bill.

"If the county absorbed those fees, we estimated it would be like $250,000 a year," Blaney explained. "I don't think other taxpayers would like to have their taxes raised for other people to use a different type of service payment program."

Plus Blaney says, if you have an issue with the fee, you can cancel the transaction by calling the Brown County Treasurer's office.

The first installment of property taxes is due on January 31.