Tax bill mistake hits area

System glitch causes DMV to mail incorrect forms to Richmond County residents; state fixes error

Web posted Tuesday, November 7, 2000

By Heidi Coryell Staff Writer

More than 11,000 Richmond County vehicle owners with December birthdays may have thought they were getting an early Christmas present when they opened their tag renewal invoice this month and saw that they didn't owe a dime in ad valorem taxes.

Unfortunately for them, it's a big mistake.

When the Richmond County Department of Motor Vehicles switched over to a new billing system with the state in October, a data processing error caused thousands of the December tag renewal forms and ad valorem tax bills to show a zero balance due. The DMV is a division of the tax commissioner's office.

Local DMV officials said they didn't realize there was a problem until they started receiving calls from confused taxpayers. The state has reprinted a corrected version of the bills, which should be in mailboxes by the end of this week.

``We want to assure the public that new bills are being printed with the proper amounts and data,'' said Roger Tomlin, director of motor vehicles for Richmond County. ``Inside the bill will also be an explanation of the problem and an apology for any type of inconvenience.''

The error affected only people living in tax District 22 - the former county district before consolidation. No penalties will be incurred for those adversely affected by the error, Mr. Tomlin said.

``This is due mainly because we just went on the system, and a lot of the data that they were putting in (to the new software) was just wrong to start off with,'' Mr. Tomlin said.

Richmond County is one of the last large counties in the state to switch to the state's new modernized vehicle registration software, the Georgia Registration and Title Information Service. Of 159 Georgia counties, 139 are on the GRATIS system, which allows tag agents to review and update vehicle registration information instantly from anywhere in the state, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Revenue officials report that they have had some minor problems with the software in other counties throughout the state, but that Richmond County's case is unique.

``It was a glitch, in that any time you do something different, something can go wrong,'' said Charles Willey, spokesman for the department, which has overseen the implementation of the GRATIS software system. ``This is the first time, as we've brought counties online, that this particular problem has occurred.''

The foul-up was software-related, not the result of human error, he said.

In 1998, there were more than 155,000 vehicles registered in Richmond County. The number of incorrect statements mailed out last week represents about 7 percent of that number.

http://augustachronicle.com/stories/110700/met_073-5716.000.shtml

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 07, 2000