Property Owners Play Beat the Clock : Taxpayers Rush to Make Monday’s Midnight Deadline for Final County Installment

Using lunch hour to wait in a line with 55 other people for the privilege of paying property taxes is usually not amusing.

Particularly when there is no other option because you’ve held off until the last day--Monday--to ante up to Harold S. Pittman, Ventura County’s tax collector.

Which is why Ron Thomas’ cheery good humor as he prepared to hand over $20,000 in taxes at the Government Center in Ventura seemed especially admirable.

“Thanks Hal,” Thomas, 52, said amiably to Pittman, who was standing nearby. “Thanks to you, my wife and I will be eating at Burger King. For the next two months.”

Thomas, who owns property at Faria Beach and an oceanfront motel in Ventura, was one of hundreds of Ventura County residents who waited until Monday to pay property taxes.

People began trickling into the county tax collector’s office as soon as the doors opened at 7 a.m.

“There were a couple of early birds here,” he cracked. “But there was no early-bird special.”

Homeowners had until midnight Monday to pay the final installment of their 1994-95 property taxes. About 220,000 property owners owed $240 million in property taxes. If their payments are not postmarked by then, they face a penalty of 10% of what they owe, plus a $10 service fee.

Pittman’s office set up a strongbox outside the government center where payments could be dropped off until midnight Monday. He expects 95% of taxpayers will make it on time, he said.

The other 5% fall into delinquency, a rate that has held steady for about two years, Pittman said.

Though far below the 10% yearly increase of the 1980s, the collections now flooding the county’s treasury are expected to reach a record $490.6 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

That is about a .46% increase over the amount billed last year, Pittman said. About 60% of the money will go to county schools, 18% to the county and the remaining is carved up among special districts.

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Although tax collections have not decreased in the past five years--even during the worst of the recession--there is a possibility they may drop in the 1995-96 fiscal year, Pittman said.

“We’ve had fires, floods and earthquakes,” he said. “All of those things decrease the value of homes.” Property taxes are based on the assessed value of the landowner’s homes and businesses.

As for those who complain there is no grace period for paying property taxes, Pittman has little sympathy.

“People don’t have to wait until the last minute to pay their taxes,” he said. “They’ve known they owed them since last October,” when tax bills were mailed out, Pittman said.

Some of those who waited until Monday didn’t agree with Pittman’s advice.

“The payment stubs come so far in advance that you keep shuffling it on your desk until you lose it,” said Karen Thomas, 30, a Thousand Oaks insurance adjuster.

Octavio Pelaez, 46, who owns a janitorial service in Moorpark, said he couldn’t have paid his $1,500 bill early.

“I didn’t have the money until Friday and they were closed on Friday,” Pelaez said. “So I had to come today.”

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Angie Appleton, 50, a Thousand Oaks nursing aide, and her sister, Ruby Riesgo, 52, of Fillmore, were among those lined up. But they didn’t mind the half-hour wait, Appleton said, because Ron Thomas and his wife, Judy, were standing immediately behind them and they kept cracking jokes.

“He’s a character,” Appleton said, pointing at Thomas. “This has not been at all unpleasant.”

All four agreed they didn’t look forward to fulfilling their next civic duties: paying federal and state income taxes, which are due next Monday.

Quipped Judy Thomas: “April is such a happy month, isn’t it?”