When 45 tax roll corrections recently arrived at the office of Tax Collector Miranda Alexander, she said it was not fair for the tax assessor to “wait until the last minute” to get them to her considering she had a short turnaround deadline.
But Tax Assessor Denise Robertson said it was “a one-time error,” adding several other issues to explain her holdup, leaving the county board scratching their heads.
“As I work on these 45 board orders that were given to me…I don’t think it was fair that I got them three days before the end of the month with all this pressure on me doing the changes,” Alexander said, during a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. “It’s a lot. In the future, get them back to me on time. I don’t mind doing the work.”
Alexander said many of the corrections were approved by the county board back in December. But she said she only recently received them.
“It took a month and a half for them to get to me,” Alexander said. “I don’t want to be put under the gun. I have deadlines.”
Robertson said she was only doing what she was instructed by the Department of Revenue to do.
“I only did as I was instructed by DOR because we had just submitted the last supplemental roll that we did not have to go through all of those,” Robertson said. “Otherwise, I have no problem doing what I need to. We have never had that problem before. I only go by directions from higher up because I am not the head.”
“I’m just saying, don’t give them to me at the last minute,” replied Alexander.
Supervisor Willie Wright urged the two vital departments to work together, leaving personal feelings aside. But both Robertson and Alexander assured the board it was nothing personal.
“You are an elected official,” Wright said, to Robertson. “I can’t understand why it takes so long. That is all I want to know.”
“Somewhere down the line, somebody changed their mind in what they told me,” Robertson replied. “Things that had happened that made me step back was it was being considered that I be given tax collector privileges that I didn’t want. That is why the offices are separated.”
Robertson’s reply left more than one supervisor confused with a unifying “what” asked aloud.
“This is taxpayers we are talking about here,” Wright added.
Alexander said if she had received the corrections even at the beginning of February, it would have been better than mere days before the end of the month.
“If I would have got them at the beginning of February, you wouldn’t have heard from me because I would have been working on them,” Alexander said. “But I get these on Thursday afternoon, and I am busting my butt trying to do them today. I should have had them a couple of weeks ago.”
Supervisor Lee Moore said the two offices must work together efficiently. He made reference to a previous board action that allowed salaries to be cut in connection to an interlocal agreement.
“I’m not but one vote, but you both have an interlocal agreement with the city,” Moore said. “And if we have to revisit that again and take something, I’m never giving it back. I am going to make that motion if this keeps happening. I don’t know what the rest of the board will do but if these offices can’t work together and can’t do taxpayer business in a timely and professional manner, I am going to do what District One wants me to do.”
