During next week’s August 9 primary, Moretown voters will be asked to cast ballots on an article that takes away voters’ ability to elect a delinquent tax collector and, instead, gives the select board the power to appoint a delinquent tax collector.
At issue is a March 2015 Town Meeting decision to have taxes due with the town treasurer by a date specific, versus having envelopes with tax payments bear postmarks of the due date or earlier, which is what the town has done in the past.
That resulted in more late payments than before and a slew of penalty payments which riled taxpayers who complained to the select board. The select board, in response, asked the delinquent tax collector to refund some of the late payments and he refused, noting that there was no fair way to determine which late payers deserved a refund and which didn’t.
The select board discussed the fact that elected officials can’t be told what to do by the select board and, as a way to get around that fact, decided to ask voters for the power to appoint the delinquent tax collector.
The board has suggested that it might save the town money because the town could dictate what percentage of the penalties collected go to the delinquent tax collector and that some might return to town coffers. Alternately, the board suggested that the town clerk and treasurer could take on the delinquent tax collection duties and their salaries would be increased commensurately.
There’s no reason for Moretown voters to cede an iota of their constitutionally given power to elect any public official to the select board. There’s no indication that it would save money or solve the problem that occurred when taxes were paid in 2015.
What would solve the problem that occurred in 2015 would be for voters to return to accepting postmarks as sufficient for taxes to be considered paid on time.
The proposed change is a solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist.
