GOSHEN —
Did the stormwater user fee included on your property tax bill this spring seem a bit higher than usual? You may have been overcharged.
According to Stormwater Coordinator Eric Kurtz, a glitch in the software used to calculate this year’s installment of the annual stormwater user fee was recently discovered. That glitch resulted in an overcharge for approximately 10,600 parcels. Kurtz announced the issue during a meeting of the Elkhart County Stormwater Board Tuesday morning.
“The stormwater fee for about 10,600 parcels out of 65,000 was incorrect,” Kurtz said. “Most of them were overcharged. And that’s because for some crazy reason it defaulted to what the rate was two years ago, and that was a higher rate because it was based on a different calculation.”
As for why only 10,600 parcels were affected by the glitch, Kurtz said it appears only non-residential parcels received the overcharge.
“The determining factor was that the residential fee pretty much didn’t change,” Kurtz said. “For example, my house has been charged a $15 fee since this whole thing started, and it didn’t change at all. So when it defaulted back to 2010, my $15 fee was the same then as it is now. So those 55,000 that were correct, I would have to assume that a majority of those were residential, and thus were unaffected by the issue. The parcels it did affect were commercial, industrial, and things like churches and schools.”
For those who have been overcharged, Kurtz noted that most will likely have the difference subtracted from their upcoming fall payment.
“There is a spring and a fall bill,” Kurtz said, “and if they’ve only paid the spring bill, they’ll just balance it out for the fall bill.”
With the issue of the software glitch now fixed, Kurtz said it is now the desire of the Stormwater Board to send out an updated bill so that everyone will have the correct bill this fall.
As the glitch is believed to have been an issue with the calculation software, Elkhart County Treasurer Larry Ernest recently spoke with officials at the software company, Government Utilities Technology Service (GUTS), to request that they pay the approximately $7,000 it will cost to send out the corrected bills.
“Larry asked GUTS to pay for that and they didn’t agree,” Kurtz said, noting that the company does not feel it is responsible for the issue.
Like Kurtz, County Auditor Pauline Graff disagrees.
“I do believe it’s their error,” Graff said, “and it’s not the first they’ve made.”
In light of this fact, Elkhart County Commissioner Terry Rodino directed Kurtz and Ernest to enlist the assistance of the county’s legal staff to try and resolve the situation.
“You and Larry engage the legal staff to get this taken care of,” Rodino said. “They screwed up. They need to pay for it.”
As for when people with incorrect bills can expect to see their new bills in the mail, Kurtz said he is unsure exactly when those new bills will go out, though it will be before the scheduled arrival of the second installment of property tax bills set to be mailed this November.
“It will definitely be sometime before November,” Kurtz said. “That’s all I can say right now. It’s going to depend on the Treasurer’s office and what works best for them.”
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