Paying taxes in one payment — one big payment, for some taxpayers — is easy on local clerks and tax collectors. A state law may make life harder on municipal officials by allowing partial payments for property taxes.

Members of the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Administrative Services Committee heard an update last week on a state law that will allow municipalities to accept partial property tax payments. Local jurisdictions have to opt into the system, and it doesn’t sound as if many are considering making a change, according to Jim Caflisch, county real property tax director, and Rebecca Luba, Chautauqua town tax collector and local Chautauqua County Municipal Clerk’s Association head. Partial tax payments will cost the county $72,000 for new computer software. We’re sure there will be a cost to local municipalities too.

While we feel for the local officials, we feel even more for homeowners who may be able to keep their homes if they are able to spread their tax payments out. This is especially true for Jamestown residents who pay the highest property taxes in the county, as illustrated in Sunday’s edition of The Post-Journal. The state and county have long lobbied for solutions to the problem of zombie properties, while we have seen the impacts of increasing rates of rental housing owned by out-of-town landlords on some Jamestown neighborhoods. Partial tax payments may help keep people in their homes longer, forestalling an owner-occupied home from being turned into a rental or, even worse, being abandoned while the home is foreclosed upon.

New York state has thrown a lifeline to homeowners who are being taxed out of their homes. We hope local governments are smart enough to grab it, but they may need a nudge in that direction from the taxpayers they represent. We hope taxpayers who are having trouble paying their property taxes will lobby their local government to opt into the partial property tax system.