Gregory Freeman: It Takes A While To Understand System, New Resident Learns. P-D 6/18/1998

Headline: IT TAKES A WHILE TO UNDERSTAND SYSTEM, NEW RESIDENT LEARNS
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thu., Jun. 18, 1998
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

The city's bureaucracy

Wes Sargent has two pieces of advice for would-be St. Louisans.
   The first is to move to the city.
   The second is to get ready for the bureaucracy.
Sargent loves city living. Since moving here a couple of years ago from Collinsville, he's enjoyed the city's color, its institutions and its diversity.
   He hasn't particularly enjoyed its government. Sargent's been baffled by the bureaucracy of the city and state and is only now figuring it out.

When he moved here, he headed to a Department of Revenue office to register his car and get Missouri plates. After standing in line "for what seemed to be days, " he spoke with a clerk who told him about the paperwork he would need: Registration, state emissions test results, inspection, personal property tax receipt.
So off he went to the assessor's office at City Hall, where he was told he wouldn't have to pay personal property tax on his Mazda truck because he was a new resident. He was given a waiver and sent on his way. He headed back to the Department of Revenue and got his plates.

Things were fine until December, when he overheard co-workers discussing their personal property taxes. Mystified, he learned that the city sends a bill that has to be paid by Dec. 31.
   That was news to Sargent. Although it makes up for it with higher taxes in other areas, Illinois doesn't tax personal property.
   On top of it, Sargent had received no bill.
   He went to the assessor's office. An employee told him she could not give him a bill - he'd have to go to the collector of revenue's office for that - but she could tell him how much he owed, and he could mail it in.
   Sargent was puzzled about why he couldn't get his bill there if he could be told how much he had to pay. But he dutifully took the information, wrote a check and sent it in December.

Sargent moved in January. He had his mail forwarded to his new address but never received a receipt for paying his taxes. When he called about it, he was told the city doesn't forward tax receipts. He could fax over his new address and someone at City Hall would put it on file. If he called back after the address was updated, the city would send him a receipt.
About a week later, Sargent called but was told that his new address was not yet in the system.
Since he only needed the receipt to get his sticker when his plates expired in July, he didn't worry about it. "I figured I'd call closer to the time I needed it, " he said.

June rolled around, and Sargent called the collector of revenue's office. "Sure, Mr. Sargent, " he was told, "We can send you a duplicate receipt. Just send a dollar."
   When he asked why no one had mentioned a dollar to him back in January, he was told that had he ordered it back in January, he wouldn't have had to pay.
   Sargent called back and spoke with a supervisor. It wasn't really the money that bothered him - it was just a buck, after all - it was the principle of the matter. Why should he pay for a duplicate receipt when he didn't get one in the first place?
   The supervisor gave him good news and bad news.
   The good news: He wouldn't have to pay the dollar.
   The bad news: He never sent in his assessment form stating that he still owned his truck, so he would be hit with a 25 percent penalty when he got his tax bill at the end of the year.

Sargent accepts blame for not turning in the form before the April 1 deadline. He'd forgotten about it. Still, he wonders why the system couldn't be simpler.
"Why do I have to tell the assessor every year that, yes, I still own this car, when the state already knows I own it, they see the change of title if I sell it, and they see the reapplication for registration if I keep it? All they have to do is look on a computer."

Poor Sargent. He's forgotten that paperwork rules the day in government. Why bother with those pesky computers when there's more paperwork to make?

Anyway, after months of trying, Sargent thinks he's finally figured out how the system works. "But it's all pretty confusing to a newcomer, " he said.
Sargent says despite all that's happened, he still likes living in Missouri. He's just not so sure about the government.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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