The last of the first half tax bills should be in the mail today. For the past two weeks, staff at the county treasurer’s office have been printing and stuffing envelopes with the 55,000 bills that go out to county property owners.

“We did it this year with staff,” Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham said. “We print it in-house and save a substantial amount of money.”

When Burcham took office, the bills were printed by an outside company, costing the county $30,000 for the year.

Today the printing costs are just for ink and paper, totaling $12,000. Postage is approximately $14,000.

The first half are due March 6 and can be paid by mail, in person at the courthouse, online or at the following banks: Citizen Deposit, City National, Lawrence Federal and U.S. Bank.

Of the $8.7 million in property tax collected in 2014 $392,623 was made by direct bank transfer, $97,067 by credit card online and $1,448,294 paid at a local bank, according to Burcham.