Still plenty of time to pay taxes
Be sure to read the notice that accompanied Warwick tax bills that went into the mail Friday, July 13.
That’s right, even though the fine print on the bill states the first quarterly payment is due July 15, the notice says no interest will be charged provided the first quarterly payment is made by July 31. For those planning to pay their bill in full, they have until Sept. 15 before incurring interest.
“It’s part of the ordinance approved by the City Council,” said city Tax Collector Kayla Jones, explaining why the bill reads July 15.
Regardless of the extension, taxpayers started making payments in person as soon as they received their bills.
About a dozen people waited in line Monday morning in the corridor of the former Greene School on Draper Avenue to pay their taxes. The line moved quickly as three clerks processed payments.
The school next to Gorton Junior High School, now school administrative offices, became the temporary home for City Hall Annex offices when a frozen pipe burst in January. All offices in the Annex have been relocated to Greene School.
Mayor Joseph Solomon calls a long-term solution to the Annex a priority. In a recent interview he said the administration continues to evaluate whether it would be cost efficient to renovate the former Annex, or to build anew.
While off the beaten track, those waiting to pay their bills Monday were not put off by the location although some felt the option of using a credit card was pricey.
Norma Wilson was one of those.
Wilson encountered problems when she attempted to pay online, so she drove down to the Greene School with her credit card. Fortunately, she also brought along her checkbook.
Using her credit card, Wilson hoped to earn flight miles so she could visit her son in California. Al least that was the plan until she learned that the third party credit card provider charges a 2.5 percent premium on tax payments.
“I don’t want to pay a $60 fee, that’s ridiculous,” she said pulling out her checkbook.
In addition to paying in person at Greene, payments can be dropped off at collection boxes outside the temporary Annex and at the back entrance to City Hall. They can also be mailed to the City of Warwick Tax, P.O. Box 981027, Boston, MA 02298-1027.
Envelopes with the mailing address have not been provided for tax payments for some years, said Jones. She cautioned that utility payments should not be piggybacked with tax payments and that the payment envelopes provided for utilities go to a different post office box.
“You don’t want to use those [to make tax payments],” she said.
“It’s been very quiet,” reported City Tax Assessor Neal Dupuis. He reported the city sent out 79,000 tax bills, but because many taxpayers receive more than one bill – a bill for real estate and another for a motor vehicle – the mailing was about 40,000. He suggested taxpayers examine the back of their bills to see if they are eligible for exemptions such as those for veterans, elderly and the blind.
Dupuis said whether the exemption has been applied appears on the front of the bill and if the taxpayer believes the exemption has not been applied or they are eligible they should contact his office.
While the General Assembly approved the second step of the phase out of the car tax increasing the value exemption from $1,500 to $2,000 and reducing the NADA book value from 95 to 90 percent, generally most Warwick taxpayers won’t see a significant decline in their motor vehicle taxes. That’s because the city made up for the $2,000 exemption last year, Dupuis explained.
Under the state program, the city is to be reimbursed for the lost motor vehicle tax revenues.
To Dupuis’ bewilderment, the city experienced about a 3,000 decline in motor vehicles for a total of 107,000 taxable vehicles. Possible explanations, he said, are that more cars are coming off the tax rolls with the increase in the exemption and a change in determining the address of a vehicle’s owner.
When the Department of Motor Vehicles transitioned to an updated computer system last year, the license address, rather than that on the registration, became the address provided to municipalities for tax purposes.
The $316.3 million budget approved by the City Council calls for an increase in the residential property tax from $20.24 per $1,000 to $20.80; commercial and industrial rate from $30.36 to $31.19 and the tangible property rate from $40.48 to $41.59. The motor vehicle tax remains at $34.60.
