BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

Taxpayers in several municipalities have received inaccurate tax bills,  but for most taxpayers the issues are minor.

Director of Real Property Bruce Green said the issues were a result of staffing issues due to illnesses that led to a variety of errors.

Although five of the municipalities have some genuine issues that still need resolution, errors that occurred on bills in Ogdensburg, Brasher, Canton, Potsdam and Rossie, will likely be resolved on the county's end in house and resulted in just over $2,000 in miscalculations between the six municipalities.

Green said that the largest error among those communities was $700 and the lowest was about five cents.

In Morristown, an issue related to charge backs still needs to be resolved. That is true in the town of Pierrepont, where the wrong budget was submitted for calculation, and the Town of Stockholm where issues related to the fire district remain unresolved.

There are also errors related to the Norwood Village Library District which includes the towns of Stockholm, Potsdam and the Village of Norwood in Potsdam.

Green said that the county is working closely with municipalities involved and expects resolutions to be hashed out in the coming days.

"We are discussing what those options will be and expect a plan to be forthcoming," he said.

Issues were first reported in Ogdensburg where tax bills were issued by the county with the correct amount due, but had problems in other areas.

In Pierrepont tax bills included errors made by the county and officials advised all taxpayers not to pay them at this time.

“Due to errors found in the town and county property tax bills issued by St. Lawrence County to Town of Pierrepont residents, new tax bills will be issued to Pierrepont residents. Pierrepont residents should wait until they receive a new revised tax bill before making payment. Some residents have already paid their tax bill, and discussions are ongoing as to how to remedy any corrections needed in their tax amount due,” a statement from Pierrepont officials issued Tuesday said.

In Ogdensburg the errors caused less trouble. “We want to reassure all taxpayers that  the individual amounts owed on their tax bills are correct,” City Manager Fonda Chronis said in a prepared statement. “This issue is limited to the total levy figure as it appears on the tax bill summary, and it does not affect individual payments or the city’s ability to collect the revenue necessary to support its operations. The city will work with appropriate parties to ensure this error is corrected in the future.”.

County officials reported meetings were still taking place into Wednesday afternoon.

In the town of Stockholm, residents in the Brasher and Winthrop Fire District were taxed 50% more than their counterparts in Brasher for fire service.

The difference between payments is roughly $100 for the average taxpayer, according to officials in Stockholm

Town Board Member Jedidiah Arquitt said board members discussed a solution to the matter that would not short the fire department.

Arquitt said board members were concerned that without an agreement with the county, the department could be short $10,000 this year.

“Last night we came up with an agreement that would mean the town of Stockholm residents would not see a refund this year for overpayment but instead would see a discount next year on their tax bill, while residents in the town of Brasher would make up that difference next year,” he said.

He said if the county did not sign off on the agreement, the town would seek a refund for residents, noting that a loss of funds for the fire department could have dire consequences.

“It all starts and ends at the county level and it feels like our residents are being punished. There are a lot of steps between the county and our residents and this was a big mistake,” Arquitt said.

He said he was also concerned about residents on a fixed income as the extra taxes were “about $100 per household.”

“That’s a big deal for residents on a fixed income. That’s a lot of money when you only have so much money and the cost of goods keeps going up. I certainly feel for everyone affected and we’re going to do everything we can to help our residents in finding a resolution to this,” Arquitt said.

Green said the county is taking action to ensure such problems do not occur in the future.