Last-Minute Taxpayers Wait in Long Lines to Pay Taxes

Long lines and short tempers were apparent this week as some St. Charles County residents waited until the last minute to pay their taxes in person.

Many of them were like Chris Starkey of Weldon Spring. Starkey was missing his personal property tax bill and couldn’t access the bill online on the County Collector’s website.

“Never got one,” Starkey said, standing in one of two lines stretching back through the county Administration Building in St. Charles on Thursday afternoon. One led to the assessor's office; the other to the collector's office.

He said he was a bit aggravated. “Yeah, look at the line, it took me 40 minutes to get here and everyone saying an hour 15 minutes or an hour and 30 and you’ve got to get a number,” Starkey said. “It’s pretty much the rest of the afternoon.”

Taxpayers faced a Dec. 31 deadline for paying real estate and personal property taxes. Payments received on or after Jan. 1, 2012 are subject to a late payment penalty or interest as required by state law.

Payments can be mailed and are credited by their postmark or they can be made online. Payments also could be made through Dec. 31 if they were placed in a drop box, located outside the county Administration Building at 201 North Second Street.

But if residents had questions or hadn’t received a bill they had until 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 30 to get answers and pay their bill in person without paying late.  The county didn't open its offices on New Year's Eve to take payments, and there was no waiver on the deadline.

Having long lines at payment windows isn’t new. And most taxpayers have gotten their bills in on time.

What’s new this year is that glitches with a new computer system caused tax bills to go out late, with some taxpayers getting them about two weeks before the deadline.

“It’s compressed everything,” said County Assessor Scott Shipman. Shipman and other county employees spent much of the afternoon fielding questions and looking up information online for residents waiting in line. “People don’t have as much time this year.”

Al Zorn and Emily Hulette were having to make time to pay their bill. Both stood in line also to try to find out about personal property tax bills they hadn’t received and had problems finding online.

Zorn, who lives in St. Peters, had taken time off from his job as head of security at the Pierre Laclede Center in downtown St. Louis to find out and pay his bill.

“I’ve been getting the bill every year and this year I didn’t get the bill," Zorn said. “I was online and they didn’t recognize my PIN number or nothing.”

“I didn’t get my bill," said Hulette, who now lives in St. Ann but resided in the county last year. “I have one van, that’s all I have, and I have to stand in this big long line.”

Hulette wasn’t happy. “They’ll (the county) will penalize you after the thirty-first, and you don’t have a bill,” she said. “That shouldn’t be your fault.”

She didn’t come by herself. Hulette was pushing a baby stroller while keeping a watchful eye on two other wandering daughters. “They're (age) three, two and one – three, two and one,” she said.

“You’ve got your hands full,” said Zorn, who was standing next to her.

Mike Land of St. Charles had been in line for about a half an hour. He was paying off personal property taxes on a vehicle for the last two years.

“I need to have a bill created here, and I have to go to the other window to pay for the two previous,” Land said. “I heard a recording that bills had been mailed but I haven’t gotten one.”

He said he figured he might be paying an extra $100 in fines along with his bill. “I’m a little aggravated at myself for waiting until today,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sherman Britton of St. Peters said he has waited till the last minute before. He sat reading a textbook while waiting for a copy of a tax receipt.

“I’m going to school so I’m catching up with some of my studies,” Britton said. "I anticipated this.”