Voice your opinion
The mail you receive everyday could be yours or for someone who use to live there. Getting the right to vote on issues in the city if you live on the boarders of the city is an issue at times. The voters registry (who the voters are, and where they live) is not always accurate.
These things I am referring to are run by machines. Now the city of Pickerington is considering using a Machine (R.I.T.A.) to inform the city who owes taxes and how much they owe. This program (machine) costs the city 3 percent of taxes collected with no personal service. The personnel the city has right now does not cost the city 3 percent of the income they receive, but the program will. A city that is in financial trouble and needs money to maintain our roads, police force, to name a few things, is considering spending money on a machine in hopes to collect more taxes.
Now the cost may not be an issue to some of you. Yes, it’s the city’s problem, but it can become a problem for you and me. Who do we talk to when the taxes the machine says you owe is inaccurate? How much time and money will it cost you to deal with a problem with an inaccuracy happens? The personal service you receive now will be lost – the quick fix of a problem simply by picking up the phone will be gone. The help you have received from the personnel in the tax area will no longer be there. Instead you will be dealing with a machine, court time, time off work – all to solve problems that may occur.
Any of you who have had problems in the past with the location of where you live (township or city), or tax issues with the city understand how easy it was to pick up the phone and speak to a real person to fix a problem.
This issue has had one reading in council. Two more readings to go and if you feel one way or the other, I urge you to speak to council. I know I am against spending more on a program that could possibly be accurate and giving 3 percent of our taxes to a company. I prefer the personal services that cost the city less and is just as accurate if not more than a program.
Carol Carter
Pickerington
