Tax Collector's Office

I was unable to attend our field trip to the tax collectors office and instead, I reviewed the website to get my information for this blog. Not having any real prior knowledge about the tax collectors office or what they do, I learned a lot from just reading different sections of the website. I was unaware of the fact that ‘tax collectors are elected for a four year term in the presidential election year’. I also didn’t know that the tax collectors office issued hunting and fishing licenses.

In the field trip prior to this, we learned that the clerk of the circuit court is responsible for handling millions of dollars. The tax collectors office however, handles over a billion dollars each year. The enormity of that figure suggests that there is a vast amount of work and responsibility that come with being part of this office. I also found it interesting that the tax collectors office isn’t actually funded by our tax dollars, and it seems a little bit ironic that they are instead funded by other fees.

There were several things I found very interesting the tax collectors website home page. First of all, on the home page there is a little disclaimer informing you that the accuracy of the information provided on the website is not guaranteed for legal purposes. I think its funny that this kind of organization, which handles so many public records and needs to be as accurate as possible, has this little disclaimer. I also found it interesting that is informs you that your email address becomes a public record if you request a public record electronically. Something else I noticed was that the Hillsborough county tax collectors office must be doing fairly good work, because this year they received a Sterling Award from the governors office.