Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In years past, hot city hallways filled with last-minute taxpayers led to hot tempers. Add to that three- to four-hour waits to get personal property tax decals, and you had a public servant's worst nightmare.
But city employees left work smiling Tuesday, saying lines to pay tax bills were fairly short.
The change is the result of additional locations to pay bills. Last year the city added the Department of Motor Vehicles office at Crossroads Mall to the list of places to pay, and this year officials installed a drop box in front of the Municipal Building.
City Treasurer Gordon Peters said the drop box is helping keep lines short and speed up service. He warned, however, that last-minute payments in the drop box will not yield decals in time to put them on windshields by the June 1 deadline.
``When people wait till May 30 or May 31 to use the drop box, they won't get decals back the next day,'' he said.
Taxpayers still can pay their personal property tax bills using the drop box until midnight tonight and not suffer the 10 percent penalty, Peters said.
He could not say how long procrastinators would have to wait for decals. He said it depends on the number of people who waited to pay this late.
Car decals are supposed to be on windshields by Thursday, but police in all jurisdictions have decided not to enforce the sticker law until mid-June. The grace period was agreed to after thousands of stickers had to be reprinted. Brittle ink caused the image to flake off many stickers, and many decals already issued had to be replaced.
Roanoke police Officer T.S. Salter directed taxpayers Tuesday to a line created for replacement decals.
Having an officer direct taxpayers this year also has decreased the time spent waiting in the wrong lines, Salter said.
``Forty-five minutes has been the longest people have had to wait,'' he said.
When asked if he predicted a crowd to pay bills today, Salter said he knows of a couple thousand people who get paid today and may add to lines: City employees.
by CNB