The county treasurer is elected every four years. In addition to the primary duty of handling county funds, the treasurer is also ex officio tax collector, ex officio public administrator, and the representative in the collection of certain occupational license, i.e. auctioneer and pawnbroker licenses. The treasurer is authorized to appoint as many deputies as may be necessary to discharge the duties of the office within budgetary limits approved by the commissioners.
Duties of County Treasurer
A primary responsibility of the treasurer's office is making sure the money collected and received is invested safely. The interest earned is included as income in the county budget and has the effect of reducing property taxes.
The county treasurer is responsible for receiving all moneys belonging to the county, accounting for their receipt, and safely keeping these funds and is also responsible for disbursing money from the county treasury. The treasurer is responsible for keeping records of the receipts and expenditures from all funds. The treasurer makes monthly and quarterly reports that are presented to the county commissioners for their review.
Payments for rural Solid Waste collection are made to the Treasurer's Office.
Duties of County Tax Collector
A primary responsibility of the county treasurer's office is the collection of all real and personal property taxes within the county. Taxes are collected for the calendar year and the treasurer sends out property tax notices that are to be collected. Half or all of the property tax is due on or before December 20th and the second half is due anytime before June 20th. If either installment is not paid by the due dates, a penalty of two percent and interest at one percent per month is added and calculated as of January 1st.
Partial payments can be made at anytime on delinquent, current or future taxes.
All taxes collected during a month are balanced and then distributed to the various taxing districts within the county.
The treasurer’s office collects special assessments for water districts, fire protection districts, local improvement districts and yield tax on timber sales.
The treasurer's office furnishes detailed and verified tax information to lending institutions, title companies, realtors, accountants, taxing districts, and individual taxpayers.
Duties of Public Administrator
The county treasurer is declared to be ex-officio public administrator in their county. IC 14-101.
The public administrator must make an initial determination of the absence of an heir or will, and take charge of the estate(s) of person(s) who, upon their death, reside within their county as follows:
- Estates of decedents for which no personal representatives are appointed, and which, in consequence are being wasted, uncared for or lost.
- Estates of decedents who have no known heirs.
- Estates ordered into their hand by the court.