Property tax bills totaling $146.8 million are being sent out in today’s mail, Flathead County Treasurer Adele Krantz said.

The dollar amount is up about $4.1 million from last year’s tax bills, while the number of tax bills being sent dropped slightly from 57,842 last year to 57,825 this year.

The first installment of taxes must be paid by Nov. 30 and this year’s tax bills must be paid in full by May 31, 2014.

Delinquent property taxes currently total just under $1 million, “probably the lowest level ever,” Krantz said, because of private third-party investors buying tax liens. Montana allows the transfer of delinquent liens to the private sector, and companies are buying them by the hundreds, she said.

Property owners with delinquent taxes have three years to pay the back taxes. If they don’t, the county issues a tax deed to the lienholder in exchange for the delinquent taxes, interest and penalties.

Protested taxes in Flathead County currently total about $4.3 million.