Seattle Address For Taxes Throws Many For A Loop

Thu., April 20, 2000

By Adam Lynn adaml@spokesman.com

It just doesn’t seem right, but it is correct.

Spokane County property owners who want to pay their first-half property taxes by mail will have to send their checks to an address in Seattle.

That’s according to Spokane County Treasurer Linda Wolverton, whose office has been deluged with calls recently from people upset or confused over the mailing address.

“We’ve gotten calls, oh yes,” Wolverton said Wednesday.

The response has been so large, the treasurer’s department telephone information line starts with a recorded voice saying, “If you are calling regarding the Seattle post office box, this is a correct address.”

What people want to know is why. Why are they sending Spokane County taxes to a firm in King County?

The answer, Wolverton said, is it’s a lot cheaper than the alternative at this point.

Seems the machine her office has used for years to process tax payments wasn’t Y2K-compliant.

The company that manufactures it decided to let the machine go obsolete, forcing customers to buy new machines to replace the old ones, Wolverton said.

That would cost about $250,000, she said.

So the Treasurer’s Office put out a request for bids from companies that could process the payments for this year.

Four suitors responded, she said, one each from Seattle, Portland, Spokane and Clark County.

The Portland, Spokane and Clark County bids came it at about $60,000 each, Wolverton said. The Seattle bid was $16,000.

So, Wolverton hired AFTS Inc. of Seattle to handle the payments.

“I couldn’t cost-justify keeping it here in town,” she said. “I got elected to make good business decisions. I didn’t get elected to win a popularity contest here.”

AFTS agents slice open the envelopes and immediately deposit the money into Spokane County’s bank accounts. That ensures that the county, and all the other taxing authorities in Spokane County, begin earning interest on those funds as soon as possible.

Wolverton is guessing she’ll hire an outside firm next year as well. Running the old machine cost the county $12,000 to $14,000 per year in maintenance and staff expense, she said.

“And, basically, they’re doing a good job,” she said.

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