Bills for the first half of county property tax are expected to be mailed out the first week of January.

On Wednesday the county auditor’s office sent over the tax rate calculations to the county treasurer’s office.

Each year the tax rate is sent to the Ohio Department of Taxation.

“They calculate the reduction factors,” Chris Kline, deputy auditor, said. “We got those back on Monday. We have to enter the tax rates and calculate the taxes and the special assessments and make sure they are in balance in the system.”

Next week the treasurer’s office will put those figures into that system and do a test run printing samples of the bills.

“We sample all of the tax districts and see if they are printed out the way they are supposed to,” Stephen Burcham, county treasurer, said. “We apply the overages for people who had overpaid last year, people who might pay a year or two in advance.”

Also taxpayers who successfully protested this year’s new property evaluation might have had a reduced bill for 2011, but asked for that to apply on 2012 taxes.

“We will do some reconciliations,” Burcham said. “We should be ready to print next Tuesday.”

Then the bills should go out the next week. First half taxes are due March 2.