HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Financial issues continue to plague the Reno County Treasurer’s office with the books being off once again more the $2 million. The problem now appears to be with the way money has been distributed from two different taxing funds.
Part of the money involves the ad valorem tax. County Administrator Gary Meagher explained that three times the money distributed was off. One time, they distributed too little and then twice they distributed too much money. But, they also failed to deduct any rebates owed tax payers who are involved with a neighborhood revitalization plan from the funds distributed to the county taxing entities. Two of the mistakes basically cancelled each other out when they sent too little, but then the next time distributed too much. But, they then distributed too much a second time. Those in the revitalization programs did get rebates anyway. Meagher estimates that they over distributed as much as $250,000.
But, it doesn’t stop there. There were also mistakes in the distribution of the motor vehicle tax. He says there were two date ranges entered into the computer for the tax collected to be distributed in January. One was from October 1 to December 20 of last year and the other from October 1 to December 31. That means they distributed $2 million over what they should have.
Those numbers are approximate, but estimated to the commission Tuesday morning to total as much as $2.25 million that was sent to the taxing entities over what they should have received. Meagher says they’re working with auditors as quickly as possible to get the books balanced. The problem is that many of these taxing entities are trying to set budgets for next year, but can’t until they know the totals of how much they were given over what they should have received.
This all came to light during the county commission meeting Tuesday. Meagher told the commission that County Treasurer Jan Hull refused to attend the meeting which upset the commissioners. Some believed that she should have been there to face the music, while Commissioner Brad Dillon said her not coming to the meeting leaves him with little confidence in her going forward.