BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — A village resident got hit with a penalty of more than $200 after his village property tax bill went to an address in Lewis County instead of his Potsdam residence.

The village clerk says the penalty cannot be waived, but at least two village trustees want to investigate how the tax bill of Larry Zuckerman of 6 Grove St. ended up being sent to Brantingham, NY.

Zuckerman came before the board at their Sept. 6 meeting to raise the issue and get the fee waived.

“I’m coming before the board to see if I need a waiver on the penalty on my property tax,” Zuckerman said.

“There is a lot of mail that I haven’t gotten from the Village of Potsdam and one of them was my property (tax) bill. And this is the first property bill that we get directly,” Zuckerman said.

The Grove Street man said he noticed when he finally received the warning of his unpaid tax bill that the zip code on the bill is 13312, which is the zip code for the Brantingham area in the town of Glenfield in Lewis County.

“So I would like the $219.65 taken off my property tax bill and I would certainly like my address corrected to the Potsdam zip code, 13676. And I wouldn’t mind getting a copy of the tax bill I never got. Which probably came back to you guys as a return now,” Zuckerman said.

“We did not get that back. If we would have gotten that back we would have reforwarded to you,” said Village Clerk Lori Queor.

“I did reach out to the county treasurer to ask about what happens if someone doesn’t get their taxes (bill). She provided me the New York State property tax law which says ‘the failure to mail any such statement or the failure of the addressee to receive the same shall not in any way affect the validity of the taxes or interest prescribed by law with respect thereto,’” Queor said.

“So in other words she’s saying we can’t go back in time and go backwards and by law, we can’t remove the penalties,” the village clerk said. “It’s the property owner’s responsibility if they don’t get them to try and contact someone.”

“But that doesn’t speak to the problem of them (the county) having sent it to the wrong address. Correct?” asked Village Clerk Monique Tirion.

“If they don’t get it, regardless of how they don’t get it, we can’t waive the interest and penalties is what she is saying,” Queor answered.

“But I mean somebody used the wrong address. So who answers to that question?” asked Tirion.

“I don’t know,” Queor said.

“You spoke to whom?” asked Tirion.

“Vicky Stiles at the St. Lawrence County Treasurer’s Office,” Queor said.

“So I guess we would need to try to discuss this with the county-level treasurer,” Tirion said.

Zuckerman said he did speak to the county treasurer’s office regarding the issue and that the county-level representative he spoke with said all the county office does is put the bills into an envelope.

“They said the bills are actually generated here,” Zuckerman said.

“The bills are not generated here. The bills are generated at the county level and mailed directly from the county and they invoice us for that mailing. We do not print any bills here at all. The county prints them all,” Queor said.

“Right, but the bill started here. That’s why it has the wrong address,” Zuckerman said. “As far as I know, 13676 is the zip code.”

“And how do we know that they (the county) haven’t… that they don’t have incorrect zip codes for, or you know, address details for other taxpayers is my other question,” asked Village Trustee Alexandra Jacobs Wilke.

“We don’t,” said the village clerk.

“We can’t check those records from our end?” Wilke asked.

“We cannot,” Queor said.

“When I spoke to the county, they said it was the village’s responsibility, and they have our correct zip code,” Zuckerman said.

Queor said that when residents make changes to the address, she asks them to contact the county to notify them of the change. She said the county usually makes the change which affects the town tax bill, the village tax bill and the school tax bill. “Because they mail them all,” she said.

“You’re saying, that we the village cannot reach into our pockets to reimburse this gentleman for this amount of money,” Tirion said.

“He has not paid this yet,” Queor said.

“That’s not legal?” Tirion asked.

“Not legal,” Queor said. “Not according to New York State law.”

“Which doesn’t speak to the wrong addresses. I think we need a few more phone calls on this,” Tirion said.

“Yes I want to look more into this topic,” Wilke added.