City defers late tax payment penalties for one month

The City of Milford has deferred property tax penalties for one month

At a recent meeting, Milford City Council voted to defer penalties for late property tax payment from October 1 as written in City Code to November 1 for 2024. The reason for the deferment is due to a new property tax billing system that prevented acceptance of payment through the online portal and a delay in mailing the bills to property owners.

“With respect to the tax portal online, it was available and up. But our payment link directed you to utility payments, which is where you couldn’t pay tax payments,” Lou Vitola, Finance Director said. “So, we updated the links on the website to be clear, there’s now an individual ladybug with the utility payment link and an individual ladybug with the tax payment link that takes you to the tax payment.”

Vitola continued, explaining that it did take an additional week to print the bills and get them mailed. The bills are also different than they have been int e past, including some who were tax exempt who received bills with a balance rather than showing $0 balance due.

“I’d like to thank you Mayor council members for just bringing up a couple of property tax billing issues at an earlier meeting. it was mentioned that someone was unable to make a payment face to face, and was directed online,” Vitola said. “Another issue related to a resident being unable to find tax payment options online. And we went back through and addressed some of these issues and found that it was a hardware issue related to the face to face payment that was resolved the next day, as Bill reported there was a firmware upload that was needed.”

Initially, Vitola thought his department could make the decision administratively to defer penalties for one month, but after reviewing the code, found it to be too ambiguous.

“We thought it’d be better if we wrote it up and the council get some buy in and approval on making that decision. The tax bills are very public. They affect everybody,” Vitola said. “And we thought that we shouldn’t make a make a change, even if it was a change for the better or an obvious change without consulting Council first. So that’s what is about. We hope you agree with us that it’s a business friendly move, it’s a resident friendly move, and we recommend that you approve it.”

Council approved the request unanimously, stating that it was in the best interest of the citizens to do so.

Vitola also informed council that the Fiscal 23 audit final adjusted trial balance along with 100 percent of the schedules required had been submitted to the auditors. Field work and testing dates should happen in the next few weeks in order to begin transitioning for Fiscal 24 as scheduled.