19,000 city tax bills contain error; new bills in the mail

The city undercharged about 19,000 property owners $67 on property tax bills sent out this month, according to City Administrator Ben Hughes.

The mistake was made by GCS Software, Inc., the company hired by the city to print tax bills. The company made a data-entry error that was caught on Friday, Hughes said in an email to city officials and council members.

The error only affects property owners who receive a state lottery tax credit and pay their taxes in four quarterly installments. Anyone who pays their bill all at once is not affected by the error, Hughes said.

Anyone who pays quarterly was undercharged $67.57.

New bills are being sent out before Dec. 22. It will cost about $10,000 to send out the new bills; GCS will reimburse the city for the expense.

Here is Hughes' Dec. 14 email to the council:

Dear Aldermen,

I am writing to keep you informed regarding the property tax bills that were mailed earlier this week. As you may know, we have approximately 28,000 parcels of properties that receive tax bills. We prepare these bills with the assistance of a private corporation called GCS. They assist dozens of cities and villages throughout Wisconsin in the preparation of property tax bills and they are based in Onalaska. We learned today that an error exists in approximately 19,000 property tax bills. This error is related to those bills that contain a lottery tax credit. The GCS personnel made a data entry error that we failed to identify until today.

The city allows for bills to be paid in two formats: complete (100%) payment or using a four payment installment plan that we include at the bottom of the tax bill. The 19,000 bills that are incorrect contain an error in the first of the four installment payment amounts. This error undercharges the tax payer by $67.57. No error exists in the amount to be paid if 100% payment is made.

I attached a press release that was sent at 5:00 P.M. today to all of our print and electronic media outlets. I also proactively called The Journal Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to personally explain this issue. We fully expect that articles will appear this weekend. The press release is self-explanatory in how we will address this issue. I will be available all weekend for you to call me on my cell phone (REDACTED). I accept full responsibility for this mistake and I realize that many of you will receive phone calls and complaints about the inconvenience and confusion that it will cause. I am meeting with the owners of GCS on Monday to express our dissatisfaction with their service. It will cost approximately $10,000 to print and mail 19,000 revised bills. Every dime of this expense will be paid by GCS.

Once again, I apologize for this error.

Ben