CHARLESTON – State Treasurer John Perdue’s office continues to grow a program that aids receipts processing in towns and other entities.
The office processed $3.4 million in electronic receipts for 11 separate governmental bodies, led by slightly more than $1 million from the city of Fairmont’s utility collections. The mark from 2014 is an uptick of about $1 million above the 2013 fiscal year total.
The program is referred to as L-gov, a nod to the assistance it gives cities, school lunch programs, public service districts and other local entities in processing receipts.
Fairmont residents and businesspeople also funneled about $126,000 through the office’s system, to pay for, among other fees, parking fines, business and occupation taxes and business license fees.
L-gov users typically pay fees by credit or debit card on the applicable entity’s web site. It is then routed through the Treasurer’s secure, encrypted portals and deposited in a Board of Treasury Investments account.
“We’re delighted to provide the service,” Treasurer Perdue said. “It’s at the heart of what I have always tried to do as a public servant – to bring state government services to the people.”
Fairmont officials are pleased.
“The reason we began this program several years ago is we were looking for a mechanism to allow our customers to pay online, without accessing our computer system,” said Eileen Layman, the city’s finance director. “It was for security reasons. We did not have a firewall set up at the time.”
Layman said the system has always worked easily and well. Fairmont has two Board of Treasury Investment accounts fueled partly by the revenue deposited with the Treasury.
“I would say probably the greatest strength would be the level of security [with the Treasurer’s Office]” Layman said. “We don’t see people’s credit card numbers and we don’t need to.”
About 34,000 transactions make up the $3.4 million total. Figures are rounded. Other users of the system: