Monessen to change partial payment policy

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

The treasurer of the City of Monessen will no longer accept partial payments for property taxes or garbage bills or any other payments made to his office.

At a special meeting Friday, council had the first reading of an ordinance eradicating the practice.

The treasurer in Monessen, for some time, has been accepting irregular partial payments for property taxes and garbage bills, according to Solicitor Tim Witt.  For property taxes especially, this actually violates the law, Witt said.

Municipalities can set up a quarterly payment system for both taxes and garbage bills, but the payments must be made in four equal payments at those quarterly intervals.

Mayor Matt Shorraw said the practice has been, for an undetermined amount of time, for some Monessen residents to drop off random sums of money whenever they had it to pay down their tax or garbage bills.

The city’s auditors have recommended that Monessen return to only accepting full payments all at once because the financial software doesn’t currently allow for quarterly payments.

The reason it has to be taken care of now, Shorraw said, is because the garbage bills need to go out fairly soon and need to be printed with the new information. 

Councilwoman Lois Thomas said she would like council to consider finding a way to permit installment payments at some point because she knows Monessen residents are likely to need them.

“Obviously, I see why people want it,” Shorraw said. “But just because they want to pay $20 here and there so they don’t spend it, that’s not our problem. We need to get this straightened out for auditing purposes. If council wants to do (installments) in the future, so be it.”

To read the rest of the story, please subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.