Tax-Day Parade of Cars at Government Center Looks Like That Baseball Movie

The stream of cars driving past the property-tax drop box at the Kane County Government Center in Geneva this afternoon looks like the closing shot from Field of Dreams. Everybody and their brother, including me, of course, are here for Round 2 of the semi-annual summer rite of passage.

Ease his pain, the trees at the government center seem to whisper.

Steve Fohn of Geneva drops in his two envelops and is kind enough to stop and chat a minute.

"Actually, I've got two houses now, one over here on Meadows that's for sale and one over behind Delnor that we've downsized into."

Let's pay two today, as Ernie Banks might say. Does it hurt?

"Yeah, it does, it does," Fohn says. "But we've had a little trouble selling our old house, and we're trying to do some things right now to improve it a little bit to get it more saleable."

If the drop box is the taxpayer version of Field of Dreams, Kane County Treasurer Dave Rickert is Ray Kinsella. Signs are posted everywhere at the government center to draw people in, a big red one out front and several near Building A that point you in the right direction, around back.

Rickert says about 2,000 people have paid via the drop box so far today, and he expects another 1,000 before midnight, the drop box's drop-dead deadline. If you can get your bill postmarked before the end of today, it's also good to go without the additional penalty.

You can also pay electronically by going to the treasurer's Web site, kanecountytreasurer.org, and select the link for electronic payments. The fee for e-check payments is $3 for payments of $10,000 or less. The fee for credit-card payment is 2.5 percent of the taxes due. (The fees are charged by the payment service, not the treasurer's office.)

"Probably your best option, if you don't hit the mail on time, is to get it in our drop box before midnight," Rickert says.

Go the distance, the voice in the trees advises.

Rickert has been treasurer for 12 years, and he's seen the number of last-minute payments grow as fast sweet corn in centerfield.

"We had about a 20 percent increase, or spike, about two years ago, and it's been steady from there," he says. "So what that tells me is the economy, at least locally, still hasn't quite turned around yet."

And that's why, if it's Sept. 1, they will come.