Stillwater NewsPress

Local News

August 27, 2011

Payne County Assessor: Most tax refunds have been repaid

By Ricky O'Bannon robannon@stwnewspress.com

STILLWATER, Okla. — Most Payne County taxpayers who paid too much in personal property tax in recent years have received rebate checks in the mail.

Assessor James Cowan said he is still processing paperwork for many more residents who paid too much, and those checks will be distributed once he has completed the process. The majority of errors occurred on 2010 bills due to a glitch in the software used during former Assessor Jacquie Rose’s tenure in office.

Cowan took the problem public after taking office in 2011. In June, he said 3,448 residents had collectively overpaid $207,419. Because those bills were already paid, residents had to file request forms for their rebates to be issued, according to Oklahoma law.

“To date, we have had paperwork returned for just over $140,000 of the refunds that are due to the overcharged taxpayers,” Cowan said.

That amounts to 1,627 resident requests that have been processed. Cowan previously said he was told by some residents the dollar amount of the refund check was too low to bother filing notarized refund request forms. This could explain why approximately two-thirds of the overcharged money has been claimed, he said, yet approximately 47 percent of the residents who were identified as paying too much filed a request. The average refund for the residents who have not filed requests is approximately $37.

After the correct forms are filed to the assessor’s office, the request then goes before the Payne County Board of Tax Roll Corrections. Once approved by the board, the correction then goes to the Payne County Treasurer, who issues and mails the checks. Cowan said he has another group of requests that need to go to the Board of Tax Roll Corrections.

Treasurer Bonita Stadler said her office has processed all of the forms she has received so far and mailed refund checks three weeks ago.

She said there were a few forms that her office sent back to the assessor’s office because of irregularities or penalties that had been retroactively removed.

“We’ve processed everything that we believe can be processed. When we see something that we feel is totally out of line, we don’t want to process it and have to correct it later,” Stadler said. “Let’s get it right the first time, if possible.”

The next group of refunds will be sent to the treasurer’s office in early September after the next Board of Tax Roll Corrections meeting. After that, more residents could expect to see their refund checks in the coming weeks.

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