Taxes can now be paid online or by phone, with check or credit card as well by going to the Tax Assessor’s website at http://www.co.amador.ca.us/depts/treasurer/. Also the tax collector’s office is offering an opportunity to all property owners to participate in the Amador County Children’s Trust Fund. The fund was established pursuant to the California Children and Families Commission, created by Proposition 10, which supports children from prenatal to age 5 by creating a comprehensive and integrated system of information and services to promote early childhood development and school readiness. The initiative, approved by voters in November 1998, added a 50 cent-per-pack tax to cigarettes and a comparable tax to other tobacco products.

This commission also administrates the First Five and Children’s Trust Fund which is funded through this tobacco tax. Eighty percent of the approximately $700 million collected each year is allocated to community trust funds, like the Amador County Children’s Trust Fund, established by each County Commission. Allocations to each county are based on the number of births, according to the birth mother’s county of residence. Locally, the outreach efforts of the Amador County Child Abuse Prevention Council are funded by the Children’s Trust Fund and the local Amador County Children’s’ Trust Fund. One caveat of the 1998 law allows property owners to designate an additional amount, on top of their property taxes, to go to the local trust fund. This money is then forwarded by Amador County Treasurer-Tax Collector Mike Ryan to the Amador County Child Abuse Prevention Council to fund the council’s continuing efforts to reduce the number of reported child abuse incidents, as well as, educational outreach activities to local families.