SALISBURY — Because of power outages and a software transition, the Rowan County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to extend a 1.5% discount for taxpayers making early payments on county tax bills.

The vote came during a called meeting Monday. The extension is until Aug. 16 to give people who usually pay early more time to make their payments, County Manager Aaron Church said at the meeting.

Typically by this time, people would have already received their tax bills, but Church said the county has experienced several snags.

“We’ve had several things, (from) power outages (to) transitioning to new software,” Church said in a phone interview.

Commissioner Craig Pierce said the county received phone calls from residents saying they didn’t get the chance to receive the discount. And a lot of them were concerned that they hadn’t received a tax bill, Pierce said.

“We wanted to make sure we’re not penalizing them because we were not able to get the tax bills out in our normal time frame,” he said.

The early payment discount on county taxes will drop to 1% after Aug 16. For real estate, individual personal property, and business personal property, taxes are due Sept. 1 and taxpayers have until Jan. 5 to pay without a penalty.

“This is a great example of having an active commission who listens to their citizens,” Pierce said.

Taxpayers can make pre-payments before the bills are issued. County tax bills are mailed in late July to early August, according to a statement on the county’s website.

The website also addresses frequently asked questions about garnishments, bankruptcies, value of property, delinquent tax bills and more tax issues.

Residents can use options such as payment coupons, which allow them to make tax payments in four payments. And they may access previous year’s tax bills on the website.