OFFICE OF THE CITY TREASURER

A Message from the City Treasurer Paul P. Wambach

It is my goal and objective for The Office of the City Treasurer to update its services as well as provide information on the financial deposits and investments of the City of Harrisburg.

 The following 2004 summary points are listed for your review..

 

Interest Earnings

The Office of the City Treasurer earned a total of $146,869 in interest earnings for the City of Harrisburg in 2004. Of this total interest, $18,133 was generated through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Treasury Invest Program. The remaining interest was generated from funds held in various other local City banks in the amount of $128,736.

Transactions

The Office of the City Treasurer processed 347,889 transactions, which amounted to $156,090,944 in 2004. Of these transactions 7,704 or $1,194,779 were in the form of a credit/debit card payment. Other payments were in the form of cash, check or a direct deposit at the bank. In 2004, the average number of transactions processed per day was 1,408 with an average daily collection of $631,947.

Payment Plans

A number of taxpayers opted to pay the City and School Real Estate Tax payments on an installment plan basis. In 2004, Treasury established a total of 1,335 installment plans, 406 City Real Estate Taxes and 929 for School Real Estate Taxes. This represents $25,091 in City taxes and $147,099 in School taxes.

Returned Checks

Payments in the form of check represented $107,197,953 or 69% of all payments in 2004. The total number of returned checks in 2004 was 495, which represented $75,543 or less than 1% of the total dollar amount of checks collected. Roughly 70% or $58,230 was collected for returned checks

Harrisburg School District

The City Treasurer’s Office also collected $32,059,478 on behalf of the Harrisburg School District. Of this total, $30,077,102 was collected for School Real Estate Taxes, $1,693,517 was collected for Mercantile Taxes and $288,859 was collected for Amusement Taxes.

Customer Service

Since I have been Treasurer, those in Treasury who have held Administrative Assistant and Accounting Clerk positions are all cross-trained to perform the duties of other staff members who are out on leave. These positions also provide additional support to cashiers during peak mail periods.

With the focus on faster payment processing, four (4) scanners were purchased to expedite the processing of various payments. An additional four (4) scanners are being purchased for workstations to facilitate payment processing.

We are nearing the testing phase for ACH remittance processing. This payment option will allow customers to make payments directly from their checking accounts, thus eliminating the need to mail payments.

It is my endeavor to maintain a continuing program of improvement for the City of Harrisburg and the people who live and work here with the Office of the City Treasurer everyday.

Sincerely,

Paul P. Wambach
City Treasurer