Treasurer briefs commissioners on idle funds, unclaimed checks and cleanup of ghost tax bills

Coffey County Treasurer Richard Crowell gave commissioners a routine financial update that included the county's idle funds summary for the past five years, an explanation of interest credits across accounts, and a plan to clean up long-standing erroneous tax statements in the county's tax system.

Crowell said the county's pooled balances rose late last year largely because jail and other funds were temporarily on deposit pending distribution. He also noted that the county's reserve accounts and interest earnings were being managed to protect liquidity for capital projects.

Tax-roll cleanup: Crowell told the board that the county has approximately 680 problematic statements dating back to a software conversion (some records go back to 1988) that represent duplicate or ghost bills and that these items inflate an apparent outstanding tax liability on system reports. He asked for the commission's approval to proceed with a statutory "tax override" process in the county system to clear those fictitious bills; Crowell said the operation will not change actual abstracts or payments for taxpayers and that state-assessed properties are not affected.

Unclaimed warrants: Crowell also reviewed a small set of uncashed warrants (checks) eligible for cancellation under statute; he said the county will bring a resolution and a final list to the board in February when staff have completed the required review and disbursement steps.

No action was required at the meeting beyond direction to proceed with the technical cleanup; Crowell said staff would return with the formal resolution and final listings once the work is complete.