After waiting 90 days for a presentation by the IT Director, Roger Brunelle, the Assessor, Barbara Erickson and the Town Treasurer, Judy MacDonald to discuss QUARTERLY TAX BILLING, townspeople are still left in a quandary.
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The information was clearly lacking.
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In addition, as has become Mr. Brunelle's routine, rather than making his presentation available on Thursday of the previous week to allow the Selectmen to review it over the weekend and make the information available to the media, Mr. Brunelle instead distributed a limited number of his reports directly to the BOS members.
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Did you see it on an overhead projector or the easel?
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Does the viewing audience know what Mr. Brunelle presented?
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It was noted that Selectman Bond felt the need to comment on how colorful the report was.
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And is that information going to be included in the Selectmen's Meeting Minutes that are not currently being posted on-line?
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Part of the presentation included razzle-dazzle gibberish about the historical presentation of real estate tax bills for the last 24 years. Was it lost on the audience that Mr. Brunelle was on the Finance Committee and the BOS 2 of the 4 times bills were mailed late?
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Way to go, Roger! More MUSHROOM FARMING!
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To simplify:
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If Middleboro goes to QUARTERLY TAX BILLING, real estate tax bills would be sent out on July 1st (the beginning of the fiscal year).
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The first payment would be due on August 1st and quarterly thereafter.
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Under the current system, tax bills should be mailed by October 1st and due November 1st. (*This year, of course, since the BOS failed to act, we know how late the bills were sent. First payment not due until FEBRUARY 2008.)
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In other words, the first payment is due a full FOUR MONTHS later under the current method - instead of August 1st under QUARTERLY TAX BILLING, they are currently due November 1st. (*assuming the bills are sent on time, which they rarely are).
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Were it not for the cash flow from the Gas & Electric Department, Middleboro would be forced to borrow during that period as other towns do.
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For simplification, let's say the total Town budget is $60 Million. So, for one quarter (which is 3 months), the Town would require $15 Million.
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The figure the Town Treasurer keeps referring to represents INTEREST INCOME ONLY that the Town is loosing from its inability to invest the G&E funds for that period.
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Please consider that in discussions regarding the Town's deficit, budget and revenue, the BOS keeps saying you either cut services or you increase revenues.
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Can't we define INTEREST INCOME as INCREASED REVENUE?
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While Mr. Brunelle managed to get his little dig in about the Department of Revenue favoring quarterly tax billing, can you understand why it makes sense?
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For those few who have not yet reviewed the DOR report, there's a link on the right side of the screen. Mr. Middleboro offers the report in a more readable format (in addition to his restaurant reviews that are a MUST READ).
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It would seem sensible to combine BI-MONTHLY PAYROLL with QUARTERLY TAX BILLING.
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Here's my reasoning: the Town Treasurer has already told you that bi-monthly payroll will save 2 1/2 days of a person's time every other week. Isn't that your partial person to handle the increased payment processing necessitated by quarterly tax billing?
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But there's also another matter that remains cloudy.
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The Town Treasurer made a comment, when asked about AUTOMATIC DEPOSIT, that she got the checks for FREE.
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Do we know if the Town is actually issuing PAYROLL CHECKS?
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It would seem this is town employee time in the generation, distribution, reconciliation of paychecks.
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Is the BOS even asking?
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