Confusion with new Clymer school tax payment system
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CLYMER -- Tax collection for the Clymer Central School district is in session right now, running until October 2, but a transition in regards to payment of school taxes has been causing some confusion among district residents.
At the September meeting of the Clymer Central School Board of Education, Business Official Jarrett Wiggers said they have been getting numerous phone calls in regards to tax payments and the new way of paying.
"I know that we had mentioned in a previous meeting about the transition and lock box from M&T Bank to Community Bank," Wiggers said. "Something that I think it important to note, we've received some questions on this and I did mention in the last meeting that that lock box is not located here locally. So, unfortunately folks can't process payments at the Community Bank branch."
A third party vendor is used to administer the lock box, which Wiggers said means that they are the ones that process all of the deposits and they cannot be processed at the local branch. The two payment options are to mail it in like it normally has been, and there is an electronic option as well.
"There was never a point in time where Community Bank was processing payments," Wiggers said. "In the past, they were collecting them and sending them to M&T Bank on folks behalf, is essentially what it was. They were collecting them there for people and sending it off to that lock box. So it's really just a matter of mailing the payment instead of dropping it off at Community Bank."
District Clerk Stephanie Leek noted that there is an option to pay online and that she has been getting a lot of phone calls, adding that it is similar to paying anything else online like a phone or credit card bill. Superintendent Beth Olson said that when the payments were dropped off at Community Bank in the past there would be some sort of paid stamp on whatever people would get back, which could then be interpreted as a receipt. Because of that lack of receipt now, she said, that is where a lot of the questions are coming from.
Wiggers said in order to have some sort of physical lock box at Community Bank to keep it similar to how it was, the school would have had to purchase a physical box to allow collection there. He added that the school did not agree with the level of security that was included with that option, and that they decided there was no good option for them to be able to do it that way.
Leek also noted that electronically the payment is more accurate than when people send in their checks, when there is always the possibility for people to accidentally fill something out wrong.
Due to the volume of questions and phone calls, more information can be found on the way to pay school taxes on the school website, clymercsd.org. The website explains how to correctly mail in the tax payment, and includes the link to pay electronically. Online payments also include a processing fee; $1.50 flat fee for an ACH or bank account payment, or for a credit card payment there is a 2.75% fee.