"The word 'municipal' is confusing people and they're not sure what that means and where their city taxes are," Hanley said. "We are dealing with a lot of senior citizens."
Published Friday, March 5, 1999
Not long after postal carriers delivered the tax bills Wednesday, the phone at the Sharon Tax Office began to ring.
"We have two (phone) lines into the office and they have been jammed since the mail was delivered," said Leo Hanley, tax collector and city treasurer.
The new look of the bills has confused many taxpayers, Hanley said. The city has about 7,000 taxable properties; senior citizens own about 55 percent of them.
Taxpayers all over Mercer County are receiving two bills, each with a copy attached at a perforation. Hanley said residents can return either the green or orange portion and keep the other half for their records. Unlike the old cards, the stubs are not marked as to which to return.
Also, the forms are more generic, listing "municipal" rather than "city" or "borough" and don't say to whom checks should be made payable. Residents should make their checks out to their local tax office.
"The word 'municipal' is confusing people and they're not sure what that means and where their city taxes are," Hanley said. "We are dealing with a lot of senior citizens."
Taxpayers looking for how much they owe should refer to the "tax rate" section. The millage rate is the number listed with a decimal point in it, Hanley pointed out.
"Some people like to calculate and double check our numbers, and they are finding it more difficult," Hanley said. "We went through and highlighted the word 'municipal' and 'county' on the forms to help out."
People also have complained about the print on the cards being too small, Hanley said.
Sharon included a slip with directions along with its bills, but Hanley said that didn't seem to help.
Michael P. DeForest, director of the Mercer County Revenue Department, said he received only one phone call with a question about the bills. The municipal tax collector's phone numbers are listed on the bills, he said.
The county used to print the tax cards itself for municipalities but recently contracted with a private company to save money. DeForest estimated the new bills would save the county about $5,000.
"We offered this as an alternative ... Under no circumstances was a tax collector required to go to this method," DeForest said.
"To my way of thinking, personally, I'm satisfied with it," he said. "If a tax collector is dissatisfied with it, they have the option of finding another system or finding a way to print the bills themselves."
DeForest said to his knowledge only Hermitage officials opted to print their own cards, but a number of communities do not send the bills out until later in the year.
Another question that has cropped up, Hanley said, is unrelated to the new appearance of the bills. Some people, who had mortgages through First Western Bank, are receiving tax bills for the first time.
First Western sold most, but not all of its mortgages in 1998, primarily to Matrix Co.
Tax bills for First Western customers who had escrow accounts with their mortgages previously were sent to the bank at the bank's request, Hanley said.
This year, those bills were mailed to taxpayers, Hanley said.
If a resident's mortgage was sold and he had an escrow account, he should send the tax bill payment to the new mortgage-lending company and write the loan-account number on the tax bill, said a First Western spokesman. If the mortgage is still held by First Western and customers have an escrow account then they should continue to submit the tax bill to the bank as usual.
