The Office of Revenue Commissioner is a relatively new office in Elmore County. Created by special referendum on March 6, 1990, in accordance with Act No. 90-254, Elmore County voters approved combining the offices of Tax Assessor and Tax Collector into a “consolidated and unified system for assessment and collection of property tax under the supervision of an elected county official designated county revenue commissioner.” The county revenue commissioner is charged with the lawful and equitable administration of the property tax as required by the state constitution and Title 40 of The Code of Alabama 1975.
In accordance with Act No. 2020-37, on July 1, 2020, the License Division duties and functions (including driver licenses but not marriage certificates) were transferred from the Probate Judge to the Revenue Commissioner. The transfer of these functions will streamline services and expand collections to better serve the citizens of Elmore County.
Elmore County is currently divided into approximately 44,000 parcels of real property covering approximately 630 square miles. The Revenue Commissioner’s Office is composed of the following departments: Mapping, Appraisals, Assessments, Licenses, and Tag & Title.
Property tax is an example of an ad valorem tax in that the value of the item being taxed determines the amount of tax. The property tax, universally recognized and acknowledged as the local tax, represents a significant source of revenue for necessary and desired public services in Elmore County. Currently the county’s net (after exemptions) assessed value stands at $638,703,400 with total tax collections of $15,293,123. At present property tax represents approximately 44% of county revenues.
Local schools currently receive approximately 32% of the collections or $4,957,297 with their portion or receipts to increase to 40% of the property tax with the levy of an additional 3mills for district “A” schools collectible effective October, 2007.
In addition to responsibility for all real property, the office also values and assesses all business personal property (furniture, fixtures, equipment, machinery, etc.) and personal aircraft.
The function of the License Division is to issue driver licenses, motorcycle license, non-driver identification, hunting and fishing licenses. Marriage certificates are recorded in the Probate Recording Department.
The Tag and Title Division processes and issues automobile titles, automobile registrations, automobile tags, specialty tags, mobile home registrations, mobile home titles, and mobile home decals as well as business licenses for Elmore County.
