Accounting error: New tax bills coming
School districts waiting for full funding
Tim Leeds
Hill County taxpayers will be getting new bills in the mail soon, county officials said this morning.
Because of an accounting error, the bills mailed out in November did not include voter-approved school tax increases.
Local schools are waiting for additional funds pending new tax bills bringing in a shortfall caused by an accounting error last fall, also requiring local taxpayers to pay in some more money to make up for bills that left some out.
Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said it is crucial that the money the district was shorted comes in in a timely fashion.
“We would be running in the red in April, ” he said. “We wouldn’t be able to pay checks to our employees, we wouldn’t have the money to cover them. ”
Members of the Hill County Commission said this morning that the problem came out of an error when the tax statements were sent out last November — the amount of school mill levies approved by the voters, including a new increase voted in last May, were not included.
Hill County Commission Chair Mike Wendland said, at this point, how the error occurred is unclear.
“We really don’t know where this came from, ” he said, adding that the commission is trying to get the word out to county taxpayers as soon as possible to forewarn them that the bills are coming.
When the levies were entered for the November 2010 taxes, the over-base school levies were not entered. The end result of the problem is, when the statements were sent out, the over-base taxes were not included.
Wendland said that also meant that the tax statements people received in November may have been lower than expected, lower than the year before.
He said that, as of this morning, it was impossible to give figures on how much this would mean for individual taxpayers. The varying values and rates of different types of property made that impossible to generalize, Wendland said.
While the total amount was not yet due to be transferred to the school districts, if the error had not been caught, the schools would have missed total over-base levies for the year, newly elected Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said.
According to Brown:
• For Havre, the elementary over-base levies come to $1,416,256.16 and for the high school, $970,964.10.
• For North Star schools, the amount for the elementary is $142,412.70, while for the high school it is $256,980.39.
• For the Gildford elementary school, the amount is $10,658.32.
The figures for exactly how much the districts had been shorted in the monthly payments made so far were not available this morning.
Brown said the new statements with the correct amounts — to be paid in two installments, by March 31 and May 31, are printed and will be mailed out as soon as possible.
Carlson said there was no way for the school district to know in advance the error had occurred.
“It was unexpected. It’s very difficult, ” he said.
Hill County taxpayers will be getting new bills in the mail soon, county officials said this morning.
Because of an accounting error, the bills mailed out in November did not include voter-approved school tax increases.
Local schools are waiting for additional funds pending new tax bills bringing in a shortfall caused by an accounting error last fall, also requiring local taxpayers to pay in some more money to make up for bills that left some out.
Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said it is crucial that the money the district was shorted comes in in a timely fashion.
“We would be running in the red in April, ” he said. “We wouldn’t be able to pay checks to our employees, we wouldn’t have the money to cover them. ”
Members of the Hill County Commission said this morning that the problem came out of an error when the tax statements were sent out last November — the amount of school mill levies approved by the voters, including a new increase voted in last May, were not included.
Hill County Commission Chair Mike Wendland said, at this point, how the error occurred is unclear.
“We really don’t know where this came from, ” he said, adding that the commission is trying to get the word out to county taxpayers as soon as possible to forewarn them that the bills are coming.
When the levies were entered for the November 2010 taxes, the over-base school levies were not entered. The end result of the problem is, when the statements were sent out, the over-base taxes were not included.
Wendland said that also meant that the tax statements people received in November may have been lower than expected, lower than the year before.
He said that, as of this morning, it was impossible to give figures on how much this would mean for individual taxpayers. The varying values and rates of different types of property made that impossible to generalize, Wendland said.
While the total amount was not yet due to be transferred to the school districts, if the error had not been caught, the schools would have missed total over-base levies for the year, newly elected Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said.
According to Brown:
• For Havre, the elementary over-base levies come to $1,416,256.16 and for the high school, $970,964.10.
• For North Star schools, the amount for the elementary is $142,412.70, while for the high school it is $256,980.39.
• For the Gildford elementary school, the amount is $10,658.32.
The figures for exactly how much the districts had been shorted in the monthly payments made so far were not available this morning.
Brown said the new statements with the correct amounts — to be paid in two installments, by March 31 and May 31, are printed and will be mailed out as soon as possible.
Carlson said there was no way for the school district to know in advance the error had occurred.
“It was unexpected. It’s very difficult, ” he said.
