Tax bills on the way

Cape Girardeau County's 2019 tax bills are in the mail and, according to the county collector's office, some county residents will receive their bills in more than one mailing.

County Collector Barbara Gholson said the multiple mailings to "a few thousand" residents are the result of a mailing process that used exact mailing addresses for each tax bill account.

Some county residents, she explained, have more than one account because they own more than one property and their billing addresses for each account may be slightly different. For instance, one account may say "Perryville Road" while the address for another account for the same person may be listed under "Perryville Rd."

In the past, the staff in the collector's office sorted and combined bills with slight address variations by hand, but this tax season the mailing process was outsourced.

"The bills were sorted by machine this year which compared the exact mailing address, so they may have been mailed differently thank in previous years," Gholson said, adding that she and her staff are "working toward better uniformity in addressing" so the bills for people with multiple accounts will arrive together in the future.

Even though the multiple mailings will result in some additional expenses for envelopes and postage, Gholson said the overall cost to mail this year's tax bills will still be lower than it has been in the past because the bulk mailing service the county is using this year is able to take advantage of presorted and bulk mail postage rates.

Approximately 46,000 real estate and personal property tax bills were mailed Thursday by the mailing service in Spokane, Washington, and will start arriving in Cape County mailboxes starting this weekend with most arriving in the next few days.

Those who do not receive tax bills by mid-November are asked to contact the collector's office, (573) 243-4476 or (573) 335-2606, to request duplicate bills.

Tax bill payments are due by Dec. 31. Payments made after that date, or postmarked after Dec. 31, are subject to additional interest and penalties.

Tax bills may be paid at the Cape County Administration Building, 1 Barton Square Suite 303 in Jackson, at 2311 Bloomfield Road Suite 102 in Cape Girardeau or mailed to County Collector, 1 Barton Square Suite 303, Jackson, MO 63755.

Do you crave business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Check it out at semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.