THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210527
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
For the second time this year, a computer programming glitch has disrupted the city's billing efforts. This time, some residents may owe personal property taxes and not know it.
Worse still, there's a chance they could owe penalties and back interest for a problem they did not create - although the city treasurer says he doesn't expect that to happen.
The problem has affected about 13,000 residents whose tax bills were incorrectly addressed by a revamped computer system, said John T. Atkinson, the city treasurer, on Tuesday.
The bills were due on June 5. Some people noticed that their bills had not arrived and called to ask about them. For these residents, the matter has been resolved.
But an undetermined number haven't called - possibly because those people did not realize taxes were due.
They could face penalties of $10 or 10 percent of their bill - whichever is greater, but not more than the amount of the bill - plus interest at 9.6 percent a year.
``I didn't think we had a major problem,'' Atkinson said, ``but the closer to the filing deadline we got, the more I realized there were more problems than I thought - a lot more.''
``A lot of people have called and have probably paid up, but there are a large number of people who have not received a bill and have not paid,'' he added. ``We won't know who has not paid until July 1 because of the way processing is done.''
Atkinson said he expects that the city will not ask for penalties and interest from those who did not receive a bill. By statute, Atkinson has the authority to exonerate people whose tax bills have generated a penalty through no fault of their own.
Atkinson has written City Manager James K. Spore asking his advice. Spore has yet to respond, he said.
For now, Atkinson said, there is no reason to call the city with questions.
The treasurer's office should know by early July who did not receive a tax bill but should have, Atkinson said.
Then the city will send a letter informing the taxpayer of the problem - along with the overdue bill.
The 13,000 bills represent just over 5 percent of the roughly 239,000 personal property tax bills issued each year for possessions ranging from cars and boats to businesses. The tax generates about $60 million and is the second-largest source of local tax revenue for the city. Real estate tax bills bring in almost $200 million.
In April, the Department of Public Utilities reported that a faulty computer program produced a handful of whopping water bills, including one residential bill for $8,000.
Most of the water-bill errors, which first surfaced in December, amounted to only a few dollars off the correct mark. The problem was traced to a few lines of computer code that confused how to correctly calculate usage rates.
The latest problem surfaced after the city switched last year from an old mainframe computer to a new system, said David C. Sullivan, the city's director of information technology.
In the time it took to convert the files on the old software to the new program, the city found itself facing a deadline for issuing city decals. To meet the deadline, computer programmers made some quick decisions about which addresses to use for the new system.
``It looks like we picked up some wrong addresses because some may not have been updated or they had changed,'' Sullivan said. ``When we were done and checked the work, we found about 13,000 addresses don't match exactly to the treasurer's records.''
The problem has been solved, Sullivan said, and should not be repeated on the next billing.
``We made an error in judgment by picking one group of addresses over another,'' he said. ``It's just one of those things.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
WHO'S AFFECTED
About 13,000 Virginia Beach residents whose tax bills were
incorrectly addressed by a revamped computer system. That's just
over 5 percent of the roughly 239,000 personal property tax bills
issued each year.
by CNB