Hilltown Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, January 19, 2012
Knox tax bill error does not affect payment
KNOX — When property tax bills were sent out earlier this month, they showed an error in the increase of the fire district levy, but this did not affect what people actually need to pay, according to Knox Assessor Russell Pokorny.
Pokorny wrote to The Enterprise this week that the town’s property tax bills show the increase in the fire district levy as being 4 percent.
“The amount of the levy and the taxes charged are correct,” Pokorny wrote, “but the increase amount should show 1.6 percent. The reason for the error is that the printer of the tax bills used the levy amount of two years ago to calculate the percentage increase instead of comparing last year’s levy of $256,245 to this year’s levy of $260,349, which was an increase of $4,104, or a 1.6-percent increase.”
The tax bills, he said, are correct, other than this descriptive error.
“They sent us a proof, and we should have caught it,” Pokorny said later, “but there are a lot of things to look at.”
It is unlikely that the town will have the bills re-printed, he said.
“That would be too much additional cost, and really it doesn’t make a difference to what people owe or what they will pay,” said Pokorny. “A lot of people have already paid, and of course, a lot of people wouldn’t look, not that that’s a great explanation. But, when we send the receipts back, it’ll have the corrected amount on it.”
— By Zach Simeone