Cache County Executive David Zook and Cache County Treasurer Craig McAllister talk with KVNU For the People host Jason Williams.
LOGAN — On KVNU’s monthly County Hour during the For the People program on Wednesday, Cache County Executive David Zook brought along Cache County Treasurer Craig McAllister.
Even though many people may not know who the county treasurer, or even the state treasurer is, McAllister said when taxpayers are upset about what they owe, they do become acquainted with him when the buck literally stops at his office.
“We do a lot of teaching, and we do a lot of explaining and reasoning and helping people understand, that’s part of my job. That’s the delight also, is when you get someone who comes in, who is upset, because their value went up, their taxes went up,(asking)why do I have to pay to the schools, all the questions that everyone always has. But it’s nice to, at least, be able to explain the why. They may not agree with it, but at least they understand the why, so that it helps them to know what process they can take to get relief, or some help or some other options,” he explained.
McCallister also reminded the public that it was 99 working days(as of July 6th) until taxes are due.
He also brought in a large box of documents and explained what they were.
“This box that you see are some tax returns, we worked these and this was our return mail. So put that in perspective, everyone that was in that box years ago did not get their tax notice. (They are notices) that bounced back.”
But, he said, by comparison, last year’s returned mail consisted of only eight to 10 mailings.
“So you look at we’ve done is we’ve given people the opportunity to make that choice. Of these people that were in this box, they didn’t get their tax notice, because it got back to us, and we already have that information as the county. By giving them and working hard at getting addresses correct, you’re getting the delinquency, that’s come down significantly because people are getting their notices, and they’re happier.”
McCallister said there are some county treasurers who want people to go delinquent because there are penalties and interest and they are distributed as extra funds.
But he said his view on it is, you give everyone the choice and they choose to make that, and if they pay late, they pay the penalty.