HomeMy WebLinkAboutA030 - Memo from Story County Treasurer dated August 26, 2010 - data error on 2010 property tax statements'
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DEPUTIES
Jane Evans — Finance
Dorothy Lewis - Operations
To: Affected Story County Taxing Authorities
From: Dave Jamison, Story County Treasurer
Date: Augum 26,2U1O
Re: Data Error on2O1OProperty Tax Statements
The Story County Treasurer's Office recently discovered anerror on the 201Oproperty tax statements sent to
residents in four of Story County's seventy-two taxing districts. Those four districts are in the communities of
Ames and Huxley. All other Story County communities and unincorporated Story County were not affected.
This error is in the "informational", previous year section of the statements and DOES NOT AFFECT THE
CURRENT YEAR TAXES DUE and has no substantial impact on other information presented on the
statements. It does, however, lead to a false impression of higher than actual increase in the levy rate from
previous year to current year for the affected districts. The figure presented under the "Previous Year" column,
in the "Total Levy Rate" line is not correct on these statements. ALL OTHER DATA PRESENTED ON THE
2010 TAX STATEMENTS, INCLUDING OTHER PRIOR YEAR DATA, HAS BEEN REVIEWED, TESTED
and FOUND TOBEACCURATE.
Details
Aproblem with the previous year levy rate mnthe city exempt property was discovered by the Treasurer's office
late |nthe afternoon onthe day the 2O1Otax list process was scheduled horun. Kwas intended that the taxes
would run on July 7. but after the error was discovered county personnel from the Treasurer, Auditor and
Information Services Offices stayed late tocorrect the problem.
The problem was that the city exempt prior year levy for Huxley and Ames had the regular district levy rate
rather than the exempt district prior year levy rate.
Once the initial problem was identified, e computer application (program) designed to update and correct the
data was executed, This program did correct the issue with the non-exempt districts having the regular districts
prior year levv Unfo�un�a|y.�ore�adenew pmb|emw�hupdaUngthe regular die�idofor /��aeand Huxley
vviththe exempt district's levy rate. County personnel did not discover the secondary issue prior toproperty tax
statements being printed and mailed.
This was the first year this unique set nfcircumstances with city exempt districts and regular districts has
occurred.
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Treasurer Memo Re: Data Error (cont.)
City ofAmes has uprinted previous year levy rate of30.0581Gand the correct rate should have been 31.886Q.
The City of Huxley shows a printed rate of 39.27073 and should be 40.78499,
As printed onthe statements, bappears that there was an 8.5%i in the City of Ames levy rate; the
actual increase was 2.99�, |nHuxley the printed data eh inreality the increase was
less that 19�
The total number of parcels impacted by this error is 17,172.
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At this time the Story County Treasurer's Office does not plan any further action beyond this memo informing
city officials in Ames and Huxley of the problem and circumstances surrounding the issue. However, |amopen
to discussion,
Options considered and abandoned include reprinting and mailing corrected statements. The estimated cost
for that iainexcess of$8'4OO.
This should not beenissue inthe future, as this is the last year the tax statements will be created from the
current in-house computer application. Bythis time next year, Story County will have successfully completed a
transition to a eoem|eoe real estate software package and opportunities for this type of data error will be
|mgret that this error happened and apologize (nthe city officials and others that have dealt with angry inquiries
based upon bad data. Producing and distributing accurate data is a priority with this offioa and all efforts have
been mode to identify and understand the problem; mitigate the negative impact and ensure no future
recurrence.
Caring People 'I
Quality P"g""
Exceptional Service
Ice
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Legal Department
Phone: (515) 239-5146
Fax: (515) 239-5142
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