Warren County Tax Collector Antonia Flaggs-Jones wants to bring the outdated and antiquated system of the county tax sale into the 21st Century by conducting the sale online.

That’s a good thing.

By doing so, the annual tax sale will be more efficient, take less time and perhaps drive-up more participation. While expressing her desire to go online with the tax sale to the Warren County Board of Supervisors, Flaggs-Jones said only a couple dozen of the more than 70 bidders in the 2017 tax sale were locals looking to invest or pick up parcels.

Flaggs-Jones suspects the reason fewer locals are participating is because most have to take off from work to spend the entire day at the county courthouse while the tax sale takes place. Going online would allow participants to bid on parcels from their cellphone, laptop or a computer from the convenience of their home, work place or while running errands.

Currently, there has been a steady increase in out-of-town investors taking part in the county tax sale and overbidding on parcels, according to Flaggs-Jones, who said the online tax sale could create more competition and local investors.

The process of conducting the county tax sale could also be less expensive to tax payers since it would free up manpower in the tax collector’s office.

We agree the process should be streamlined and with today’s technology, going online is the right thing to do in creating more revenue for the county, as well as cut down on costs.  It seems to be a win-win situation and we are hopeful the supervisors agree with the county tax collector.