The town of Vestal is considering changing the way it collects taxes from residents. The Vestal Town Board is weighing whether to contract with Broome County for tax collection.
Town Supervisor Maria Sexton said the board has heard complaints from residents about the process for paying taxes in Vestal. She said currently, most residents pay their taxes by mailing a check or by paying in person at Vestal Town Hall during business hours.
“The problem is, if you work, you can literally never get there,” Sexton said. “You can never do anything in person. So if there's an issue or a problem, you can't get it worked out. But electronic access for people who work gives them much more accessibility.”
Sexton said currently, residents can technically pay online, but only with debit or credit cards, which involve a 3% fee. If the town contracts with the county, she said residents would be able to pay online from their checking accounts.
Sexton said if the town contracted with the county, there would no longer be in-person payment at the Vestal Town Clerk’s office. But she said residents would still be able to drop off payment at any time, using drop boxes in Vestal, at the county office building, and at the Oakdale Commons shopping mall. She said residents could also pay in person at the Oakdale Commons or at the county office building.
“I think the biggest difference for our residents is in order to have these other options, would you be willing to give up the in-person [option] in Vestal?” Sexton asked.
The town board has sent out a survey asking residents whether they would like the town to contract with the county. The survey is available on the town’s website, or in person Monday at the Vestal Town Hall from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Responses are due by Wednesday, November 13. The town board will also hold a special meeting to discuss the potential change at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
“We're going to look at the results together, and we're going to look at what people want or don't want,” Sexton said. “That way, we get a better sense of what people's concerns are, what they would like, and what is really important to them.”
Sexton said most of the town board members were open to the change. Councilman Stephen Donnelly, who has often clashed with Sexton during meetings, forwarded a statement to WSKG that he sent to other members of the board pushing back on the potential county contract. He said he is not in favor of changing the tax collection process, and that the potential change must be voted on by residents through a public referendum to pass.
“I want my position known that I feel that tax collection should absolutely stay with the Town of Vestal and this appears to be yet another attempt to attack a department that doesn’t fall in line and instead tries to do what is best for the Town,” Donnelly wrote. “My vote is to keep tax collection with the Town and when it comes out how unfair and bias this survey is and how it doesn’t reach the representative population, I want my name nowhere near it.”
Broome County currently contracts with at least 10 municipalities for tax collection, including the city of Binghamton, the towns of Chenango, Conklin, Dickinson, and Kirkwood, as well as several school districts across the county.
The county tax collection service is currently free, but if the county decides to start charging towns for tax collection, Vestal officials say it would cost a maximum of $40,500 dollars a year. Officials say the town currently spends over $50,000 to collect taxes.