When Cape Girardeau County tax bills are mailed this fall, they might bear a Spokane, Washington, postmark.

That’s because county commissioners approved a request Monday from County Collector Barbara Gholson to outsource the mailing process to a mail processor in Spokane specializing in bulk mailings such as the county’s personal property and real estate tax bills.

According to the collector, outsourcing the process will save the county thousands of dollars in postage, materials and labor expenses.

“This is something new that we’ve never done before,” Gholson said, “but it will be like the county clerk’s office and assessor’s office that outsource their mailings now.”

Gholson’s office received bids from four mailing services, including two from Missouri, and recommended the county accept the bid submitted by The Master’s Touch LLC of Spokane, which submitted the low bid of $29,614.25.

“That number could fluctuate a little bit based on the final number of bills to be mailed,” Gholson said.

The bid covers all costs associated with the printing, postage and handling of the county’s estimated 71,000 tax bills, including the initial mailing in November and delinquent tax bill scheduled to be mailed in January.

Gholson said the mailing service can take advantage of lower postage rates than the county currently pays.

“Last year, we had 80,000 pieces of mail that went out and it cost us 45 cents per piece,” she said. “With this bid, it will be 38.3 cents per envelope.”

Gholson said a hike in first-class postage will mean even bigger savings.

“With postage going up, it will probably be 50 cents compared to 45 cents last year so we’ll probably save 12 cents per envelope on postage,” she said and estimated the postage savings alone will be about $5,400.

When factoring in the cost of the mail processor’s contract and the savings the county will realize in lower postage, materials and seasonal labor costs, Gholson said the county will save an estimated $5,162.

Residents will continue to send their tax payments to the collector’s office as they have done in the past and there’s a possibility they may not even realize their bills originated more than 1,500 miles from Cape Girardeau County since the envelopes will still bear the address of the county collector.

“I’m not sure if they (the tax bills) will have a Spokane postmark,” Gholson said. “Sometimes, when you have a bulk mailing and it’s presorted, they don’t even have where it’s coming from on the envelopes.”

County Treasurer Roger Hudson said the county did a preliminary look at outsourcing the tax bill distribution process last year.

“There will be an overall savings in postage,” he said, “and there will probably be savings in personnel because we won’t have staff stuffing envelopes all summer and into the fall.”

The county’s personal property and tax bills will be mailed in early November.

“If people don’t have them by Thanksgiving, they should give us a call,” Gholson said.

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