By By Chris Allen Baker/staff writer
Jan. 7, 2002
Information compiled by Lauderdale County officials on property taxes and appraisals is now available online over the Internet.
The new accessibility feature for taxes joins a service for car tag renewals in place since 2000.
Appraisal and tax information on property in the county is available to the public via the Internet as a service provided by Lauderdale County Tax Assessor Jimmy Slay through one of the county's vendors. The service was an initiative Slay proposed during his last election.
Slay informed the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors of the site last week and encouraged them to consider pursuing the service. At this time, Slay said, the service is provided at no cost to the county by Delta Computer Systems, a supplier of computer software to the county.
The site is accessible by directing a Web browser to www.deltacomputersystems.com and then clicking on the "search" option at the top of the page. This will bring a list of counties participating in the service and Lauderdale County is one of eight Mississippi counties and two Alabama counties included.
Clicking on "Real Property Taxes" or "Real Property Appraisal" will provide blanks to fill in requested name for information desired, last name first without a comma.
The information available includes almost everything about a particular property a person would want to know, but in the past would have had to visit the courthouse to access, Slay said.
Mostly used by attorneys and real estate professionals, Slay said he has received positive feedback on the service.
County residents can also renew their car tags via the Internet through a service provided by Tax Collector Stanley A. Shannon since 2000. Shannon said future plans include enabling county residents to pay their property taxes online. Residents can currently look up a property to see if taxes have been paid and how much was charged, Shannon said, adding this service was made available about a week ago.