Geary County officials describe slow rollout, software limits after tax-statement errors

Geary County officials gave an update on a months‑long effort to reissue corrected tax statements after errors were identified, saying the county is working through a large, time‑consuming backlog and that many of the corrections are very small.

The county’s treasurer, Sherry, described the process as labor intensive and constrained by the tax software used by multiple Kansas counties. County staff told commissioners that only one person can actively process a given set of statements at a time, that the system times out if a user is in a session too long, and that the vendor checklist supplied with the software is generic and did not anticipate some local distribution steps.

Commissioners and staff said the county is trying to balance speed with accuracy. Officials said the majority of the adjustments are modest — many under $5 and some zero amounts — but the aggregated total of the affected line items was described as “over $400,000” when staff reviewed the list supplied by the software vendor. Staff also said some items on the vendor list were not actually collectible amounts and that manual checks removed some entries.

Commissioners said the public received mixed messaging when the county’s initial public statements called the problem a county miscalculation while social posts attributed it to a vendor software issue. Commissioners said that created confusion among title companies, realtors and taxpayers and prompted follow‑up outreach to the vendor and to other Kansas counties that use the same system.

County staff reported that the vendor’s logging had been limited ("the log cut shut off"), which hampered the county’s ability to trace exactly where a miscalculation might have occurred. Staff described a learning curve after a recent software migration and said the county has been working with another county’s checklist and local practices to tighten its process.

Commissioners and staff described operational fixes already under way: expanded cross‑training among the clerk’s office, appraisal and finance staff; more rigorous pre‑distribution checklists; and plans for county representatives to attend the vendor’s annual symposium for training and to propose software enhancements. Staff said they are marking sale prices and other sensitive data from the sale validation questionnaires to comply with privacy rules before releasing lists to third parties.

The county did not present a formal timeline for when all corrected statements would be mailed. Commissioners repeatedly offered to help with manual tasks such as envelope stuffing; staff said they will accept that assistance for non‑technical work while the treasurer’s office completes the processing steps.

Why it matters: Residents rely on corrected tax statements for budgeting and closing real estate transactions. County leaders said they want to avoid recurring errors and will pursue training, checklist revisions and vendor engagement to reduce the chance of future rollout problems.