by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The scope of how the Department of Revenue & Taxation conducts its property valuation process and tax billing methods will soon be upgraded as the Government of Guam recently signed a contract with Manatron. A company described as "a leader in providing integrated property tax and land administration software for governments worldwide" can now add Guam to that list.

Rev & Tax signed a $5 million contract with Manatron to license its Government Revenue Management application. Rev & Tax director John Camacho says the contract was awarded through local vendor Data Management Resources to replace its legacy real property tax system and convert over 30 years of data. "It's going to definitely improve the services to the taxpayers so people can actually come and access a lot of this information that they couldn't access before, and I think there's talk that some people outside of the government who might be looking at these information that might be valuable for companies in real estate," he said.

Camacho added that the system provides a more user-friendly billing system - something that has been absent with its former program. The new GRM system would also allow Rev & Tax to conduct multiple property valuations, integrate building permits and offer extensive data storage and retrieval. Ultimately, it allows the agency to work better with several government agencies.

"So it's all interfaced and we're all now talking with one another that the three main divisions Rev & Tax, Land Management, and Public Works and all these things would come down to an end soon," said Camacho. He says this new system all ties in with its tax mapping project, GPAS and its computer assisted mass appraisal system, which are part of the agency's revenue enhancement initiatives.

The next step is moving forward with re-evaluating the entire property of Guam for early next year. The new system is going through a test run now and will officially launch once necessary adjustments are made.