News

Fla. office collects tax payments at kiosk

March 31, 2003

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Okaloosa County, Fla., is deploying a self-service kiosk for the citizens of Okaloosa County to conduct a wide range of transactions at the county tax collection office, including paying property taxes, renewing vehicle registrations and purchasing occupational or hunting and fishing licenses.

The kiosk will enable users to make payments with credit cards, according to a news release.

This initiative, provided in conjunction with Nashville-based electronic payment processor LINK2GOV Corp., is the first of its kind in Florida to offer a full range of county and state transactional tax-related services, according to the release.

Okaloosa County and LINK2GOV Corp. are using Info Touch Technologies Corp.'s (TSX Venture Exchange: IFT) kiosk security management software, Surfnet Premiere, to enable access to e-governmental services at the kiosk.

Hamed Shahbazi, chairman and chief executive of Info Touch, said in the release that the Okaloosa County initiative "fits perfectly well within our vision to utilize public access technology to deliver financial and community-based services to the masses." 

"Citizens today should expect their government to meet their needs anytime and anyplace," said Okaloosa County Tax Collector Chris Hughes in the release. "Our kiosk complements our current Internet and automated phone services to address those citizens who want to transact business with our office, but who experience time constraints or simply are unable to physically come to one of our five offices throughout Okaloosa County."

Hughes, who was one of the first tax collectors in the country to accept credit cards for tax payments both in the office and over the Internet, added, "Our goal is to continue to increase citizen convenience through innovative use of emerging technologies."

Tom Tarver, president of LINK2GOV, said in the release that the Okaloosa County kiosk is the first in Florida to offer the option to make a variety of state and county payment services. LINK2GOV is an authorized payment processor for several Florida County tax collectors.

"These types of services not only serve the citizens directly, but they create operational efficiencies within the government entity," said Tarver in the release.

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]