Error creates tax mis-statement Thursday, August 26, 1999 By DAVID KROTZ, Of The Globe-Gazette

MASON CITY - Thirty-three thousand Cerro Gordo County property tax statements will be delivered in the mail today and 8,200 of them will be wrong, overcharged by $2.

It's all the result of new computer software that was recently custom-designed for Cerro Gordo County, said Michael Grandon, county treasurer.

"It is an error in the logic. It has to do with rounding up," he said. "Just one crummy round up problem. We went to great pains to have an accurate tax document."

"It isn't an easy problem to catch. We just discovered it yesterday afternoon," said Ken Kline, county auditor.

The problem has already been corrected in the computer software but the real estate tax bills have already been printed and it would be cost-prohibitive to find the one in four that are incorrect, said Grandon.

New corrected bills will be printed and mailed Friday, he said. So, if property owners don't get a revised tax bill in the mail Saturday or Monday, their original statement can be assumed to be accurate, he said.

"Please don't call," Grandon said. Just wait for the second mailing that goes out Friday to see if you are one of the unlucky ones excessively billed by $2.

One bright spot in the mix-up is that Devnet Inc., the software developer out of Chicago, has agreed to foot the bill for correcting the problem.

There is a new look to the tax statements this year, a box of new information provided in the top right corner of the page. Last year, the state Legislature mandated that past-year information be included in the statements.

"That was a daunting task," said Grandon.

The law also requires duplicate tax bills be sent to titleholder, contract purchaser, escrow agent and ACH customer. This information appears in a box titled "Important Information" and property owners are urged to read it, said Grandon.

-- ~ (abc@def.gov), August 26, 1999

Answers

May, may not be y2k-related, but it is typical of a "new" program, rushed into production, and not tested: getting the amount wrong??? In a tax program??? Somebody really screwed up here.

2.00 they don't mind giving back, even though most users would not notice the difference - but the "good attitude" created by admitting the small error is commendable. Now, would they tell you if the amount was "over" by 2000.00? By 200.00? You'd notice if it were 200,000.00; but the littler amounts could get by in other programs.

It's starting....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 27, 1999.