LETTER: Why Do County Taxes Go to Baltimore?
October 31, 2014
DEAR EDITOR,
Where is our County Treasurer, Cynthia Bradford, these days — is she in the State of Maryland or in Eastville, Virginia?
We are instructed to send our real estate taxes to Baltimore, Maryland. That’s approximately $50 million total. Why should those funds be deposited in Maryland instead of a bank in Virginia that is under the jurisdiction and scrutiny of our state?
As a taxpayer, I care where my money is being held.
We elect a Treasurer and pay her over $100,000 a year, yet she passes the responsibility of receiving tax payments to an office in Maryland. That is wrong. The jobs of collecting tax receipts should be Eastville jobs, and the bank where the money is deposited should be a Virginia bank.
TONY SACCO
Letters to the Editor are welcome, and a diversity of opinions is encouraged. Send submissions to [email protected].
Good point, Tony.
Different circus same clowns. We have enough!
I am here in Eastville and so is the bank that I deposit funds into everyday, PNC Bank. The payment lockbox address is in Baltimore; if your check matches the coupon on the tax bill exactly, it is deposited directly in the County’s main bank account and the payment posted immediately. Everyone is welcome to mail to the local Eastville address that is also on the tax bill, or they may come right here to the Treasurer’s Office; those funds are deposited in the same bank account.
We are a small office and before 2006 when this was implemented, it took all of us several months to process thousands of pieces of mail by hand. Many citizens complained that it took their checks too long to clear. It was very difficult to let title companies, attorney offices, and the general public know if taxes were paid if they were sitting in mail bins waiting to be posted to their accounts.
I very much appreciate your concerns. I feel it gives us the opportunity to use the technology that is available to make things more efficient.
The staff in this office works very hard to serve the public and welcomes any suggestions.
Salaries of County employees are public knowledge; however your statement of mine is wrong.
Credit management is my area of expertise. A lockbox provides faster delivery of funds to the customer. Lockboxes are located in cities of larger scale postal delivery, often cutting off a day or two in delivery of checks when the customer is in an area outside of central “hub” locations. Faster delivery, faster deposit, equals faster turnaround of funds to the County, and allows the County the opportunity to apply the funds at the rate of their abilities.
I wondered that too. Thank you ladies for your clear and concise responses. Thank you for employing a more effecient system, and for ignoring the insinuations and name calling before you even had the chance to respond.
Hi Peggy. I do not work for the County, but I do mail my property tax bills to the lockbox every year, and insure that they are postmarked on or before the due date. As one who has had to perform float studies on mail times for postmark date vs. deposit date, I can tell you that I have seen deposits shaved down anywhere from one to five days by utilizing a lockbox in a postal hub location. Those one to five days are critical from a cash management standpoint. It allows the employees to focus on the applications i.e. “serving the public.” Lockbox facilities do return the envelopes with postmark dates to the customers, so determinations can be made if a check was mailed by the date it was due.
I second Peggy’s comment and thanks to our Treasurer’s explanation, understand better why the funds are sent initially to Baltimore.
Ms. Bradford:
1) How much is Northampton County paying workers in Baltimore to do a job we could do ourselves? You are putting our citizens out of work.
2) “Lockbox” is a gimmick word to confuse the public. It still means we send our tax dollars to Baltimore.
3) What is your salary including benefits?
Good explanation, Cynthia. Glad to hear there is a good reason for this.