The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1914-08-22
COUNTY FINANCES
ARTICLE NO. 4
County Treasurer

The office of county treasurer
combines some of the most ex-
acting duties which can be found
in any line of work. Where
other offices may deal with poll
cies, estimates, orders and forms,
the treasurer deals mostly with
dollars and cents-with immense
ledgers figured in three colors of
ink, showing all the debts,
credits and balances of the many
county funds.
The treasurer is the daily re-
cipient of the fees collected by
the various county offices, giving
receipts and crediting tn e
amounts to the various funds.
This class Of receipts last year
totaled $14, 483.
The treasurer receives and dis
burses all funds which are paid
to the state, all school moneys,
all drainage or diking or irriga-
ton funds, handles all school
bonds, issues all calls for the
payment of warrants, carries his
cash balances in the various
banks of the county and keeps
track of them, makes quarterly
and annual reports of all funds.
and when he has nothing else to
do he sells tax receipts to the
property owners of the county.
The annual business of the
county treasurer is now in the
half million dollar class, which,
by the way, is no small business.
The collection, segregation and
distribution of tax moneys is the
large part of the direct financial
work handled, for the tax
moneys of all the different road,
school, irrigation and drainage
districts must be properly'appor :
toned. The process of handling
the tax on a single piece of prop
erty is quite intricate, and may
we'll be explained here.
The treasurer receives the tax
rolls from the assessor via the
auditor. The treasurer then
makes the actual workout of the
levies and proves the extensions
to make the roll account. The
treasurer makes out the state
ment of the tax for the individ-
ual taxpayer, and if the taxpay-
er has the money he comes in
and pays it, or sends it by mail
(some months the treasurer's
mail will run 5000 pieces, with
yearly total of $4,000 or more).
The tax payment is then re-
ceipted in duplicate, the amount
credited on the tax roll, entered
on the daily cash book, and the
receipt checked with the credit
by the auditor. Then the treas
urer segregates the various parts
of the tax which 60 to the state,
county, school, roads, or what
ever may be required, and must
then prove the segregations with
the total received. On delin-
quent taxes this segregation
must be made for each individ-
ual year for each of the funds.
Then the separate credits are
posted to the various funds, and
the funds themselves must be
posted in the tax roll account.
And, finally, II the assessor or
auditor have overlooked a mis-
take in the district boundaries.
or if for any reason a refund or
cancellation has been made, the
treasurer may have the pleasure
of going through the entire pro-
cess again. and crediting or debit
ing all the accounts to balance
the correction.
Even unpaid city improvement
taxes are now certified to the
treasurer by the city clerk, and
the treasurer collects these. At
present there are five separate
road accounts, three kinds OF
school accounts for each district,
and old taxes still due Pend
Oreille county still have to be
handled.
The county treasurer does not