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Don’t pay your taxes (yet)
Corrected 2008 statements mailed after error
Wayne White
Managing Editor
If you received your 2006 property tax statement in the mail last
week, don’t panic. A chain of errors has resulted in Osage
County taxpayers receiving statements with 2006 figures instead
of 2008’s. New statements should arrive in mailboxes this
week.
According to Osage County Clerk Rhonda Beets, the company that printed
the statements has accepted responsibility for the problem and is
resending the statements at no cost to the county.
Beets said the problem stemmed from an error in her office, in which
the wrong computer file had been uploaded to the statement printing
and mailing company, Postal Presort, of Wichita. This year’s
tax statement computer file had been named the same as the 2006
file, which Beets said had been left in the system by the software
company. Until this year, the software company had performed the
service of uploading the file to the printing company, she said.
This year’s process was different due to updated software
and the county clerk’s office now performing the upload.
“The Infinitec software named the file the same name,”
Beets said Friday. “That resulted in two files with the same
name being in the system.”
Beets said she had followed step-by-step instructions from the software
company while uploading the file. The old file should have been
cleared from the system after it was uploaded in 2006, she said.
The error was realized when calls from taxpayers started coming
in to the county clerk’s office last Wednesday. In all, 16,757
incorrect statements had been mailed.
Osage County Treasurer Jo Ann Hamilton said the problem was compounded
by failure of Postal Presort to send a proof.
“The file was transmitted … they processed it, but failed
to send a proof before they mailed it out,” Hamilton said
last week. “Otherwise I could have caught [the error].”
Hamilton said the printing company has accepted responsibility for
the error.
“They are taking the brunt of the responsibility, at basically
no charge to us,” she said.
Hamilton agreed there could be further expenses to the county due
to the error. Postage may be required to mail checks back to taxpayers
who unknowingly pay the 2006 amount.
“If the amount is not correct (for 2008 taxes), then we’ll
send the check back for correction,” Hamilton said.
She said the accounting process used by the treasurer’s office
does not allow partial or incorrect credits or payments –
full or half payment of the owed tax amount is the only payment
accepted by the treasurer’s office.
Hamilton and Beets ask that taxpayers have patience and wait until
the correct statements arrive before making payment. Anyone wishing
to know or pay the correct amount before the statement arrives can
contact the treasurer’s office for information. |
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