Pulaski County Tax Payments to Be Accepted at Authorized Banks, Retailers

Options will soon be expanding for Pulaski County taxpayers to submit their property payments.

Looking for a COVID-free way to pay your property taxes? Pulaski County Treasurer Debra Buckner has a few in the works.

Her office in Little Rock will make an official announcement about offering contactless cash property tax payments at 10 a.m. Thursday in its parking lot.

Pulaski County Treasurer Debra Buckner promotes tax payment drop-off locations at some Centennial Banks.

Three bank branches and 288 stores that include Walmart, Kroger and Edward’s Food Giant locations, and Circle K and other gas station locations, will collect payments. The stores will collect them for a negotiated $3 flat fee, Buckner said.

The deals are firsts in Arkansas, she said.

Buckner declined to name the national tech company that will make these payments possible at the retail locations, citing the official announcement where a representative will speak.

A representative of the bank will also speak, but that identity is not a secret: Centennial Bank has been collecting property tax payments since Sept. 1 in North Little Rock and southwest Little Rock. Another branch in west Little Rock will be added to the program this week.

The treasurer is on track to collect approximately $530 million in property taxes this year, and typically about $150 million would be received from in-person payments between Oct. 1 and the Oct. 15 deadline.

Buckner said the pandemic has forced her office to come up with creative options to serve those cash-paying taxpayers, since the office has been closed to the public since March 13 and 35 of its 53 employees are working from home.

The bank payment option has been advertised on radio for a few weeks. Starting today, advertisements about them will appear on MeTV, a network that runs classics like “Gilligan’s Island,” “I Love Lucy” and “Perry Mason.”