Routt County treasurer outlines low-cost monthly property-tax escrow option

County Treasurer Lane briefed the Board of Commissioners on Sept. 8 about a voluntary monthly property-tax prepayment option administered by a third-party escrow vendor that is already in use in many Colorado counties.

Under the program, an owner who is eligible (typically a property not subject to a mortgage escrow or other lien that already pays taxes on the owner's behalf) creates an account online, the vendor estimates the next year's tax based on county data (Lane used an 8% planning assumption for next year), divides the estimate into monthly payments, and withdraws them from the payer's bank account. When the official tax roll posts in January the vendor "trues up" each account and adjusts future monthly amounts. The vendor then submits statutory payments to the county on the usual schedule.

Lane said the county has no implementation cost: the vendor charges the customer normal processing fees (e.g., a small per-check fee or credit-card convenience charge) and a $2 setup. The county already exchanges data files with the vendor for other payment processing, so the treasurer described the operational change as minimal; 49 of Colorado's 64 counties had adopted the vendor'hosted approach at the time of the presentation.

Lane cautioned the product is not appropriate for everyone: owners with mortgages typically already have an escrow arrangement and the system cannot reliably accept accounts duplicated by mortgage escrows; sign-ups where mortgage companies were already paying would be refunded to the customer. The treasurer said four Routt County accounts were enrolled at the time of the briefing and that county staff plans additional outreach, including inserts with tax notices in January and contact with senior and social-service groups.

Commissioners asked about commercial use, vendor adoption by larger counties, outreach to state legislators and whether the service will reduce the county'run tax-deferral program that creates a lien; staff noted the tax-deferral program remains a last-resort option and has title-transfer complications and that the monthly escrow option is preferred because it does not create liens on property and imposes no direct cost on county operations.

Lane recommended the county publicize the option to eligible residents and to coordinate outreach through local aging and social-service organizations.