By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County officials are pondering the best way to move forward with an error on tax statements that were recently mailed to residents throughout the county. Shortly after the county notified the public via social media that statements would go out on Dec. 8, Clerk Bev Schmeidler issued a press release stating a clerical error in her office resulted in an error. Treasurer Jim Jordan said during Tuesday's commission meeting that the error is causing headaches in his office.
"Every year, my elections are December," he said. "The month before we get the statements out, the month of, and the month after. We have other things we need to address with this that's coming through my office. We don't have the manpower, nor the time, to deal with all of this."
Numbers for a utility company with a pipeline that affects eight taxing units in the county were not certified until September. Schmeidler said, through a clerical error, the numbers were not calculated in a portion of the 2023 tax levies. Once the taxes were rolled over to collections, the mistake was virtually impossible to correct as it would have undone months of work in several departments. Commissioner Tricia Schlessiger tried to pin down which residents were impacted.
"This is very confusing to the average taxpayer who is going to look at their statement," she said. "Now, they don't know if it's correct or incorrect. Is there a way to pull a report or put something out there? Or how do we address this?"
Two taxing units in Beaver and Cheyenne Townships, as well as Fairview, Independent, Union, and Wheatland Townships will be impacted the most. The error is relatively small numerically: a property valued at $250,000 in those townships would be over-taxed by approximately $8. Statements around the rest of the county may also be impacted in less significant amounts. The discussion turned to how the errors would be addressed, including paying under protest or carrying them over into next year as a tax credit.
"There's no easy solution just to say it's next year," said County Counselor Patrick Hoffman. "At the end of the day, it's really up to the taxpayers if they want to protest or pay under protest, whether it's 50 cents, a dollar, or a big amount. It's up to the taxpayers. They have the right to file that way."
Appraiser Wendy Prosser said filing a protest may cost taxpayers significantly more than they are due back, and the protest process could take several months to process. Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson said teamwork will be required to come up with a solution.
"I guess this is one time we're blessed to have a past appraiser and a past county clerk on the board with us who have a lot of experience and can maybe help us get through this," he said. "I think the main thing is being completely transparent with the taxpayers. For me, I was sitting here biting my tongue waiting to make sure that's what happened this morning. I'm thankful it did."
The issue may have ramifications for future tax cycles. "The other thing that now presents a problem is we can't roll the tax year next year until everything is in, which in turn, is going to put the tax statements later," Jordan said. "Usually, I get all my stuff together and Bev has the levies in, they're good, and I send them out right away. Now, we can't roll until she has them in and they're all corrected."
Anyone with questions or concerns is encouraged to call the Barton County Clerk's Office at (620) 793-1835, or by emailing [email protected].