Burlington residents have been noticing something peculiar on their tax bills this year. The notices instruct them to send their money to New York — specifically, to a post office box in Albany.
Lest conspiracy theories start to percolate, the clerk/treasurer’s office has posted an explanation on its website.
Until this year, Burlington has processed its tax payments in-house. But according to the announcement, city staff struggled to deposit the sudden influx of checks in a timely manner.
The city is now outsourcing the task to its bank, KeyBank. By having residents send checks directly to KeyBank’s processing center, where they’re deposited within four hours, the city starts collecting interest sooner.
The statement claims that “by having our banking partner assist us in this process, city staff will be better able to focus on other job responsibilities, provide a higher level of service to our customers and will spend less taxpayer money to process property tax payments.”
No city jobs were eliminated as a result of the change, according to the statement.
Why not use a local bank? The answer, not surprisingly, also involves money. After the city conducted an RFP two years ago, KeyBank won the account, the statement notes, because it offered “the best terms with the highest interest rates for our money and lowest costs.”
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Might as well send the tax money directly to Don Sinex so he can start his big project even sooner.
Whine whine cry whine complain be jealous be resentful whine complain whine whine whine whine be pathetic whine complain whine whine whine make baseless accusations whine complain never substantiate accusations whine whine whine
City could have gone with one of our locally controlled credit unions. If everything is truly the bottom line for our city these days, might as well sent to money to organized crime. I’m sure we could have gotten an even better deal!
It probably makes sense to have an outside source process the tax money but it just doesn’t feel right. In a state struggling to create decent jobs, this looks like a lost opportunity.
By the way, the Sinex comment is funny.
I wonder if the City of Burlington requires Key Bank to follow their rule about $15 minimum wage – like they do every other business that works with the City?
The similar situation came to light when I asked the call taker for the Vermont Public Radio pledge drive where he was located and he said Nevada. I learned since that VPR contracts with a firm in Las Vegas to save money. I raised the issue at a VPR Board meeting and they brushed it off.
I explicitly questioned their responsibility to keep the jobs local, pay a living wage, explore the New England consortium concept at least. My resolve is to not pledge another penny to VPR until they answer the calls locally, and until they hire a Public Editor/Ombudsman akin to the NY Times to investigate inadequate news coverage and bias.
Several of those ‘non-profit’ folks are making well over $100k to support the VPR fundraising powerhouse. I only hope that their journalism can become as effective as the fundraising.