Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tax Payments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Warren County: Online credit-card tax payments offline after PayPal/Payflow incompatibility; county seeks vendor before December bills
Summary
County staff told the Board of Supervisors the online credit-card payment link was taken offline Aug. 21 amid a PayPal/Payflow issue; after restoring the service Aug. 26, online card payments still failed because the county's AS/400 tax server requires a Payflow-compatible processor and a cooperating bank. Staff said eCheck and in-person payments remain available and warned of a tight timeline to fix the system before December tax bills are issued.
Warren County staff told the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 1 that the county's online credit-card payment system for taxes was taken offline Aug. 21 after a state-level problem involving PayPal/Payflow and remains unserviceable for online card transactions while staff secures a compatible processor and bank.
"We took the credit card processing system offline to make sure that we didn't have a breach of our own or a system issue with our own system," said Todd Jones, who briefed the board on the technical timeline and vendor constraints. Jones said the county brought the system back up on Aug. 26 but discovered that "when we tried to make credit card payments, it wasn't working" because the county's AS/400 tax server requires a payments processor that supports PayPal Payflow.
Jones told supervisors the county has asked the previous processor and PayPal-related vendors to allow continued Payflow use but was refused, and staff must now migrate to a different processor that both supports Payflow and can integrate with the AS/400. "We need to find a credit card processing company that actually uses PayPal Payflow link," he said. County staff are also negotiating with banks to find one whose contractual and technical arrangements will allow integration.
The county confirmed that eCheck (ACH) payments have been restored and taxpayers can pay in person at the county building. "There's already a home page on the county's website that states that we are not able to take credit card payments," Jones said; he added he would update the message to note that in-person credit-card payments are accepted.
Board members pressed on speed and cost. Jones said he is concerned about the time required for vendor selection, contract negotiation and technical configuration, and warned that being unable to process online payments by December would create significant public inconvenience. "It's more than just picking a company," he said. "It's picking a company, signing contracts, negotiating all of the procurement stuff ... It's the amount of time we're looking at and getting it done before December. That is a very big concern."
Several board members asked whether markup or merchant-fee differences had been researched; Jones said departments across the county use varied processors and fee rates and the treasurer is researching consolidated options. The treasurer was identified as coordinating a migration to a processor used by other local governments, but Jones said the bank-compatibility piece remains the key dependency.
The board directed staff to continue vendor and bank outreach and to keep supervisors apprised of progress. Taxpayers were advised on Oct. 1 to use eCheck/ACH or pay in person until an online-card solution is restored.
Next steps: county staff will seek a Payflow-compatible processor and an agreeing bank, complete procurement and contracting, and configure servers and the AS/400 integration; the board emphasized urgency ahead of December billing.
