HSC Treasurer now taking payments online

The Hot Springs County Treasurer is now taking payments online. The County Treasurer website offers online payment for both license plates and property taxes for Hot Springs residents.

“It’s quite an interesting system,” said County Treasurer Julie Mortimore. Mortimore did a soft release of the system in late August in order to keep traffic low to make sure the program worked properly, and thus far she has been impressed with the system.

“I still want to see [our residents’] smiling faces at the counter, but I wanted to make it easier for them” to pay their taxes, she said.

Mortimore added that the third party payment processing service, Forte, has very strict security and can provide peace of mind to residents who wish to pay online. She noted that in the past some residents would call and ask to pay their taxes over the phone. The online payment system, Mortimore said, was borne out of her desire to protect county residents’ financial information while letting them pay their taxes from the comfort of their own home.

“It isn’t for everybody,” she said, but the system allows Hot Springs residents with busy lifestyles to pay their property taxes and tag fees from anywhere at any time.

Although most Wyoming counties have offered online payment in the past, Mortimore said “It’s been nerve-wracking because it’s a big change, but the people that are helping us with it are there 24/7.”

A service fee of 2.5% of the payment amount with a minimum fee of $2 is charged for credit cards. A service fee of $1.50 is charged for e-checks. According to the Treasurer website, the service fee is charged by the county’s payment processor and is not charged by the county itself.