By Carol Brandt
I attended the select board meeting last night for delinquent tax collecting and must admit – I’m late to the debate. I never saw the vote coming down the way it did. Did you? The select board is going to take the job from an elected third party and give it to our town treasurer (granted an elected position). During the discussion the board said that our treasurer already works a 40-hour week and has an assistant to help with her workload at this time. So we will give the treasurer more work, a raise and most likely the assistant will have more hours and pay as well. Yet, they insist this change will save our town “significant monies.” How? If normally we average $11,000 in late fees and now we’re giving raises – which will continue to increase – how much are we really saving?
An article that I read in The Valley Reporter stated that the select board had requested some fines (not all) be returned. The collector refused, as it was not fair to all. He refused the rebate because he doesn't believe he has the legal authority to do so. What would happen if the treasurer was asked this same request? Where is the check and balance to the system?
Our current delinquent tax collector has gone over and beyond to do a great job. He has dropped the high number of late taxes to a reasonable amount. He has worked with those who don’t have the money to come up with solutions that work for all of us. By doing this our town is in better shape financially than in many years prior with our delinquent taxes.
The select board received a letter from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns stating that a town could appoint a delinquent tax collector in July of 2015 and another reminder in January 2016. Yet there was no mention of this at Town Meeting. Instead in a terrible election year – this proposal comes to vote at our primary election. Most people are still debating if they will vote at all this year. Why select a time when it is customarily a low voter turnout? Why wasn’t this discussed at Town Meeting when most of our voters vote? With discussion, this could have been placed on the 2017 Town Meeting ballot.
I urge you to vote no this coming Tuesday, October 11. Take the time to vote. Once we lose this position, we won’t get it back. We won’t know what takes place behind closed doors. We need a third party to keep the procedures fair to all and have a check and balance system in place. Please vote – please vote no.
Brandt lives in Moretown.
