Ronnie Brannon County Tax Collector says
"Time is running out for savings."
Columbia County, FL (posted
August 17,
2009)
By Stew Lilker
Ronnie Brannon, Columbia County's popular Tax Collector,
wants you to know that time is running our for savings.
He urges you to renew you registrations by the end of
the month, if you qualify, for substantial savings.
Go here to see if you can save money.
A little bit about Ronnie Brannon and the Tax
Collector's Office
Columbia County’s Tax Collector, Ronnie Brannon has
been working in the tax collector’s office since 1986.
Before that he had twenty three years experience in
retail, which explains his and his staff’s concentration
on service.
Mr. Brannon explained his success in the Tax
Collector’s Office this way. “You have to have a staff
dedicated to serving the public and I have a good one.”
Mr. Brannon explained that the Tax Collector’s Office
is a fee office, which means that it costs the county
tax payers nothing to run his office.
Mr. Brannon said that his office gets three dollars
to renew a tag and this fee has remained constant since
about 1985.
The tax office is a clean running machine and last
year returned five-hundred thousand dollars to the
county.
Mr. Brannon explained that even with the loss in
revenue for the county and the decreasing tag and title
business, his office is still operating in the pink as
he makes up these loses in commissions by collecting the
taxes for the School District, the County, and the City.
Ronnie wants you to know you may still save money if you
act now.
• Go here to check it out.
If you still have questions, Ronnie says, "Give us a
call at (386) 758-1080. We are here to help you."
Mr. Brannon said, “If the tax rolls drop
significantly we could be in trouble, but so far we are
holding our own.”
He continued, “When I was elected in 2005 we had
twenty employees then and we have twenty now.”
Mr. Brannon explained that the possible transfer of
the driver license function from the state to the
county, the way it is being proposed, would be a losing
proposition for the county. He said, “Driver’s licenses
are a state function.”
Mr. Brannon said that he is always looking for ways
to save money. He said, “My motto is – do it now and
save some money.” This certainly is one reason that his
office returned a half a million dollars to the county
last year.
Mr. Brannon concluded by saying, “My staff is always
trying to do the best job it can do. We try to give good
service. That’s all we can do.”
(Editor’s note: When your reporter called to
make the appointment to meet with Mr. Brannon he just
called, got one of the girls on the phone and said,
“Ronnie please.” The call was transferred and Mr.
Brannon answered the phone himself. No run around and no
third degree -- a nice touch in the day when government
does its best to insulate itself from the people. After
speaking with Mr. Brannon the Observer is glad to report
that he is a “nice” man and a credit to his Office and
the people of Columbia County. – Stew Lilker - ed/pub.)