New Beaufort County website promises more transparency, new treasurer says
A new website for the Beaufort County Treasurer's Office promises to make how much money the county is collecting in taxes more transparent and easier to track.
The site includes downloadable data that tracks, month-by-month, how much the office has collected in taxes, according to new Treasurer Maria Walls. The website already includes the office's data for the past five fiscal years and will be updated regularly, she added.
That gives interested citizens or even other government officials the ability to parse and study the office's collections to help hold Walls and her staff accountable, she said.
"There is no one that has that level of transparency in our state," Walls said.
The website is live at www.beaufortcountytreasurer.com. It also includes how-to videos, answers to frequently asked questions and available online forms for county taxpayers.
The project is Walls' first as the new county treasurer. She announced the website Wednesday following her swearing-in ceremony at the county offices in Beaufort.
The Republican replaces retiring treasurer Doug Henderson, who hired Walls as a certified public accountant four years ago. She was later promoted to deputy treasurer.
When Henderson announced he would not seek re-election in early 2014, he added that he would be throwing his support behind Walls. She won the seat uncontested in last fall's general election.
During their tenure together in the Treasurer's Office, Henderson and Walls navigated the office out of the shadow of a 2010 controversy surrounding missing money from a delinquent tax sale. An inquiry ultimately ended in charges against one office employee, who was convicted of embezzling more than $210,000, and calls for then-Treasurer Joy Logan's resignation.
"She has taken the office and brought it where it is today," Henderson said Wednesday. "I know she will carry the office farther than it's ever been before."
The website is an attempt to continue those efforts, and planned improvements will add more data and more information for taxpayers to sift through, Walls said. The site cost $4,500 and was designed by local firm Hazel Digital Media.
"It was the best and fastest way that we could communicate everything our office handles to the taxpayer in a way that would impact them the most quickly and really show what I find important," Walls said. "We're constantly going to be looking to improve, so this is a visual indication of what the taxpayers can expect from me."
New auditor sworn in
New Beaufort County Auditor Jim Beckert also was sworn in at a ceremony Wednesday in Beaufort.
The former school board member and Port Royal businessman won the position as an uncontested Republican in the November general election.
In last summer's Republican primary, he defeated county software programmer George Wright, who now works directly with Beckert and Walls on the county's tax software.
Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook atfacebook.com/IPBGZach.
Related content:
- Howard unseats Von Harten for County Council District 4 seat , Nov. 4, 2014
- Beaufort County Treasurer Henderson won't seek re-election; supports deputy treasurer's bid , March 12, 2014
This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 9:11 AM with the headline "New Beaufort County website promises more transparency, new treasurer says."