So, I'm a bit frustrated.....

[clipse]

I kinda have mixed feelings about this. I work for our county assessors office. I'm also on our local Volunteer FD. Recently we had a new VFD start up in our county. In fact it just started last year. We'll, for what ever reason they didn't get thier levys turned in on the bills (it was fought by the state and the state lost but that just happened). So now we (the county) need to send out new tax bills to the people in the new FD for just the FD. Unfortunately we had several people in the wrong district. Since there was no FD there before, those people haven't paid for a FD at all. No the come in when they get their new bill saying,"But I'm not in the new FD district, I'm in your district." This is where it gets tricky....

I've been told to let the people know that if we change it to the correct FD district then they will pay alittle more. So I have to give them the choice of paying for a district they are not in or paying a bit more and paying a district that they are in which happens to be my district. My FD is getting screwed out of money, I know this, I can't do anything about it.

There were somother screwy things go on as well (dealing with the new district) that screwed my district out of money but its really complicated to explain.

I just needed to get this off my chest.

clipse

[jaybird210]

I kinda have mixed feelings about this. I work for our county assessors office. I'm also on our local Volunteer FD. Recently we had a new VFD start up in our county. In fact it just started last year. We'll, for what ever reason they didn't get thier levys turned in on the bills (it was fought by the state and the state lost but that just happened). So now we (the county) need to send out new tax bills to the people in the new FD for just the FD. Unfortunately we had several people in the wrong district. Since there was no FD there before, those people haven't paid for a FD at all. No the come in when they get their new bill saying,"But I'm not in the new FD district, I'm in your district." This is where it gets tricky....

I've been told to let the people know that if we change it to the correct FD district then they will pay alittle more. So I have to give them the choice of paying for a district they are not in or paying a bit more and paying a district that they are in which happens to be my district. My FD is getting screwed out of money, I know this, I can't do anything about it.

There were somother screwy things go on as well (dealing with the new district) that screwed my district out of money but its really complicated to explain.

I just needed to get this off my chest.

clipse

I don't know what sate you are in, but I can tell you how this would go over in Illinois:

What you are being told to do would be illegal. A person who is in a fire district here is so because of a vote. If the owner of a parcel of property wishes to disconnect from one district and annex to another, it is possible, but it requires a legal filing. If it involved a number of parcels, it would require a referendum. You can't just walk into the clerk's office and say, "I don't want to be in Poedunk's fire district anymore. I want to be in Mayberry's fire district." You have to pay the appropriate tax for the fire protection district that you are in.

[clipse]

Its not that the people want to be in one district or the other. Its just that thier money is going to the wrong district and the FD's have no clue. If they were to have a fire, which district thier money goes to has no weight on which district would show up. Its a screw up in our office that I'm trying to get fixed for this year(2007) but the poeple coming in to pay thier 2006 bill for the new FD is the problem. The money goes to the collector and the collector gives the money to the FD's. The FD's have know idea what tax payers that includes.

BTW I'm in MO.

[ntmd8r38]

Its not that the people want to be in one district or the other. Its just that thier money is going to the wrong district and the FD's have no clue. If they were to have a fire, which district thier money goes to has no weight on which district would show up. Its a screw up in our office that I'm trying to get fixed for this year(2007) but the poeple coming in to pay thier 2006 bill for the new FD is the problem. The money goes to the collector and the collector gives the money to the FD's. The FD's have know idea what tax payers that includes.

BTW I'm in MO.

What you've been told to do is illegal, if the collector refuses to make sure the money is going to the right place and people are paying the correct amount to the correct district, then go over his head, make a call to the AG's office, we had a similar situation happen here 2 years ago, that county got a new collector and we got our money.

[Bones42]

The FD's have know idea what tax payers that includes.

Does it matter? There's a call in your district, go to it and handle the emergency. What does knowing who the tax payer is matter? I have no idea if anyone in my town is delinquent in their taxes...nor do I care.

[clipse]

Does it matter? There's a call in your district, go to it and handle the emergency. What does knowing who the tax payer is matter? I have no idea if anyone in my town is delinquent in their taxes...nor do I care.

It doesn't matter. And its not the point. Our district is getting screwed out of money that they should be getting and they have no way of knowing it.

[Bones42]

The FD should very easily be able to contact the tax office and request a list of properties in their district. They have that right. It's not a secret. They just have to put a little effort into asking for the information.