JACKSON – Paying taxes in Northampton County got easier recently.

Thanks to a grant administered by County Finance Officer Dot Vick and her department, citizens of the county can now pay their taxes online.

This feature is one citizens throughout the county had asked for, according to several representatives of the Northampton County tax office.

County Manager Wayne Jenkins said the step was another in many attempts to make the government of Northampton County more friendly and easier for the citizens.

&uot;This was a new service feature Northampton County added that made making payment of taxes easier and more convenient for the citizens of the county,&uot; Jenkins said. &uot;The feature, as well as others that will be coming online, is geared towards making government more user-friendly.&uot;

To make tax payments online, citizens will simply have to go to the Northampton County website. The address to that site is www.northamptonc.com.

In the upper lefthand corner of the website, there is a button that directs citizens to &uot;Online Tax Payments.&uot;

Once there, the citizen will have to read the standard disclaimer for the service and then will proceed to another screen and select etaxpayments.

To pay the bill online, citizens will need to have their tax bill number or parcel ID. They may also search for their tax listings by entering a last name and first initial.

From that screen they can proceed to pay the local taxes.

The person paying the taxes has to pay the fee for using the credit card.

Tax Administrator Kathy Allen told the Northampton County Commissioners in a recent meeting that many people had said they would rather pay the fee than drive to Jackson.

&uot;This is a continuation of the philosophy of the Northampton County Board of Commissioners to make government as user-friendly as possible,&uot; Jenkins added.

He said there would be future enhancements on the website that would continue to help citizens in the areas of the tax department and public works.