The following letter was sent by H. LeRoy Whiteley, Jr., president of Marylanders for Fair Property Taxation, to Harford County Executive David Craig and Chief of Staff Aaron Tomarchio. A copy was provided to The Dagger for publication:
Hello County Exec Craig and C of S Tomarchio
We have written and discussed with you in the past several years of our dismay with the Treasury Department and its mailing of tax bills.
For two of the past years you have assured us that this taxpayer dollar waste was corrected BUT IT IS NOT!!!!!
We spend our summer on the Eastern Shore. ALL of our mail EXCEPT THE HARFORD COUNTY TAX BILL is forward to us daily. Kent County forwards our tax bill. Worcestor County forwards our tax bill. HARFORD County does not; instead electing to use a “policy” of requesting “Address Service”.
This requires the post office to return mail to Harford County, even when people like us have TEMPORARY forwarding service. Several years ago John Scotten informed us that this policy was to inform Harford County when tax bills were not delivered. We say now as we did then, Harford County NEVER knows whether or not a tax bill has been delivered. You only know that it was not returned to you UNLESS the address service request function has been applied and worked. That service request information is designed to inform senders of a move or PERMANENT change of address NOT A TEMPORARY ONE!.
When we called the Treasurer’s office we were informed by “Cindy” that indeed our mail had been returned to them BECAUSE ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION SHE WAS READING FROM “WE WERE TEMPORARILY AWAY”!!!! What should that be telling somebody something!!!! Had our mail been forwarded as it should have been, we would each have saved some time and money and my taxes would have been paid by now.
Instead my tax bill was returned to Harford County where it eventually would end up in the unpaid taxes/tax sales morass, if we had not taken action. But now “Cindy” will seek out the itinerant bill, remove it from its original mailing, type a new envelope, affix postage again and forward the bill to us here on the Eastern Shore where it would have been sent if Harford County did not interfere. This is government inefficiency at its worst!!
WHAT IS THIS STUPIDY COSTING TAXPAYERS EACH YEAR??? We certainly are not the only taxpayers away from home when tax bills are mailed. If memory serves us correctly several years ago we jointly estimated a cost in excess of $20,000 per year was occurring with this “policy”.
Hope you can straighten this out once and for all. It is simple—JUST REMOVE THE ADDRESS SERVICE REQUEST. Tax bills are the soul responsibility of the taxpayer and those of us who are responsible taxpayers know when taxes are due and see that they get paid to protect our interests.
Thanks for your help. Hope you can fix it this time.
Roy Whiteley
$20,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue collected in county property taxes. I don’t see how this is such an egregious waste of taxpayer money. The Sheriff’s Dept probably pisses more money away letting deputies take their cars home.
But there is a more significant error in this [ridiculous IMHO] letter: The Post Office’s Address service DOES NOT require the piece to be returned to the sender for a new address. What he really is referring to instead is Return Service. Kind of a glaring oversight, don’t you think?
At most Address Service might be a minor delay for a clerk to physically fill out a card to be sent back to the mailer with the corrections- but it is at a 50 cent fee per mail piece. Return Service actually just the requests the mail be returned to sender when mail is not deliverable to the printed address, even if it is temporary, but it is at no additional cost.
ow while there is of course costs incurred with printing and mailing a new tax letter, the unknown is whether it is less than the cost of Address Service. I’m unsure of it myself, but I do know they are bulk mailed by permit and willing to be they get a discounted rate for postage, so at the very least, the postage is well less than the 50 cents for a Address Service cards.
Umm, dude….if this is the best example you can find of “wasting” taxpayer money, I would suggest not quitting your day job. Granted, it all adds up, but this is “issue” represents a very, very small percentage of people being affected (based on your estimate of 20K being spent), and is really just a personal thing that you feel you need to get resolved (my opinion).
Also, the tone of the message is a bit pompous (again, my opinion). Oh, to have the problem of “summering” on the Eastern Shore….damn….how do you make it through the summer?…you poor soul!
I wish I had enough money to spend my summers on the Easter Shore worring about my costing the county 50 cents. If this happened our gain would be their loss.
H. LeRoy Whiteley, Jr I wish you would stay on the Eastern Shore all year and concern yourself about all the chicken waste that causes a lost of millions of dollars a year in damage to the bay.
How is this news worthy even for The Dagger? It sounds like a guy with way too much time on his hands.
Some of the editorial decisions around here are curious.
Clearly this Sir is upset because he’s gone back and forth with his local government a few times and they seem unresponsive. Waste aside, that is enough to be frustrated about.
I was out of town from June 30th to July 18th, and my bill came while I was away, giving me just 12 days to pay before the discount period ended. Unfortunately, I still have a mortgage, and fortunately, they paid it on time as always.
Of course, people should know that they can check (and pay for a fee) their water and property tax assessments on the County website– even while you are away.
Tax bills can be found online at http://www.harfordcountymd.gov/Treasury/Bills/
Derp.
Just like Christmas comes on Decemeber 25th, you should have an idea when to expect your tax bill. I’m not in love with government but give em a break.
It is reasonable to expect to receive one’s tax bill on a timely basis.
tax bill comes same time every year, maybe those “eastern shorebirds” should plan a daytrip back to Harford County nad pay the bill. they might even make an inspection of their “winter Home” to ensure all is well. If that’s too much trouble, and you don’t like how the county spends $$ or treats you, here’s a novel idea, sell teh harford County house and become full time residents of the shore.
Well, if you are going to move, for goodness sake move to a state that doesn’t tax you to death like Maryland.