Real Estate Taxes Lagging, COVID-19 Precautions Blamed

The Door County Treasurer’s Office is behind on processing real estate property-tax payments paid by the end of 2020.

“Everyone wants their taxes dated with an end-of-the-year date” to benefit from the deductions, said Door County Treasurer Ryan Schley. This year, the office had encouraged mail-in rather than walk-in payments due to COVID-19 precautions, which resulted in a greater number of mail-in payments, Schley said.

“That’s the biggest reason for the backlog,” he said, but his staff is catching up. “We are about a week and a half behind now.” 

Schley said he also doesn’t have the same office staff handling the influx. Some work from home, and mail-in payments can’t be processed outside the office. 

Schley said he didn’t know how many more mail-ins they had received this year versus a normal year.

“I sense a lot more,” he said, “just due to the fact that we fell so far behind compared to a typical year.”