By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
Otsego County officials are asking local banks to offer special savings plans to their customers to help them pay their taxes.
The ``tax clubs'' _ interest-earning accounts dedicated to paying taxes _ would operate something like Christmas clubs, according to county Treasurer Daniel Crowell.
``What we want to do is help the people who are struggling to come up with that one lump sum to pay their taxes,'' Crowell said.
The details of the plan will be disclosed in the next few weeks, he said.
Some members of the Otsego County Board of Representatives have suggested the county accept tax payments on an installment plan, but this would increase the workload at the Treasurer's Office, Crowell said.
If people were to pay monthly rather than annually, for example, the staff would have to process 12 transactions instead of one per taxpayer. The additional work might require adding an employee _ in effect, raising county expenses to accommodate people who are having difficulty paying for their share of county expenses, he noted.
Opinion is split on whether the county should do this, but a way to address rising tax delinquencies without creating more work in the Treasurer's Office is to have banks offer the tax clubs, he said.
Crowell said he has contacted all banks and credit unions in the county, and they seem receptive to the idea.
``Every bank and credit union is different, and the accounts will vary from institution to another, but I think we have agreement on the concept,'' he said.
Such a program might benefit banks, which stand to increase deposits, as well as customers, whose money will earn interest, he said.
Crowell said the idea came from Rep. Stephen Fournier, R-Milford, who noted that Delaware County already has a tax-club program.
``I brought it up because some people are having a hard time paying taxes,'' Fournier said.
On Thursday, Delaware County Treasurer Beverly Shields said Delaware County has worked with banks since the mid-1990s to help taxpayers meet their obligations. When a taxpayer is in arrears and wants to pay back taxes to the county on the installment plan, he or she must first enroll in a tax club for future taxes, Shields said.
She said the program has been modestly successful.
``It helps some people _ particularly senior citizens _ but not everyone,'' she said.
The Sidney Federal Credit Union, which operates in Delaware and Otsego counties, already offers a tax-club program, customer-service representative Carrie Johnson said.
``We have a direct deposit option, too, so you don't have worry about making the payments,'' she said.
Rep James Johnson, R-Otsego, chairman of Otsego County's Administration Committee, said measures to help taxpayers are appreciated, ``but of course, the best thing we could do is to lower the taxes so they're not so hard to pay.''
Johnson and Crowell said that the number of tax delinquencies has risen in recent months, although they said they were unsure of exact numbers. Crowell, who took office in January, said he is working on those calculations this week and expects he will soon know how many people are late with tax payments, as well as characteristics such as parcel size and town of residence.
