Comments on: Mailing interest checks cost state $100,000

By: BigWaste

BigWaste — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:13:22 +0000

My son got a check for .72. I agree with Bewildered, they could have just either issued a credit or donated all of that $100,000 to some other cause. What’s he supposed to do with it? Making the time to go to a bank and stand in line for .72 is sooooo not worth it. He threw it away.

By: GeorgiaPeach

GeorgiaPeach — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:52:08 +0000

File electronically. I did that back in early Feb. and had my refund before the end of Feb.!

By: Base

Base — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:21:23 +0000

Sonny mismanagement again.

By: Lundy

Lundy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:25:28 +0000

I had a state refund check mailed to me for $1 a while back. I just received a check for $.01. Yes, a penny. It cost the state $.33 to mail it.

By: Bewildered

Bewildered — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:25:16 +0000

I received one of these checks. It was for a $1.00 overpayment of taxes. That check arrived three or four weeks ago. I felt it was foolish to go to the expense of writing and mailing it and heck, they could have just not told me or applied it to next year.

Lo and behold, two days ago I received a check from the State for $3.30 with the explanation the it was for not refunding me within the required 90 day period and for interest on the $1.00.

No wonder we are in a financlal mess!

By: AngryMom

AngryMom — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:34:34 +0000

When cuts are as deep as they now are with state budgets, you have to expect service to be affected. Today it’s interest on late refunds. So what if Georgians have to wait longer in line for services because agencies have to close up to 6 or more days throughout the year. So what if more children die because we don’t have enough social workers. So what if IBM and AT&T are not held to minimum service levels on the monopoly they now have over the state’s newly outsourced computer services. So what if you can’t reach an English-speaking person when you call the state’s help desk. So what if our children’s test scores continue to round out the bottom in national rankings because we’re furloughing our teachers. Let’s all GO FISH! It all depends on the priorities and whims of this untouchable governor and a bunch of legislators who don’t pay their own taxes.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:16:45 +0000

Sorry Gary, you are bringing a pocketknife to a gunfire here, bud. First of all, the $100,000 figure included the postage, envelope, printing etc. That’s what it meant when it said it cost $100,000 to send the checks. Reading is fundamental, Gary.
The Legislature sets the budget, agencies cannot move money around within their allotments. At the end of year, if they need to shift some around to meet needs, they have to go in front of the Fiscal Affairs Committee made up of, you guessed it, legislators.
If you want to blame someone for money being cut from the Dept of Revenue, there are 180 Reps and 56 Senators that voted for the budget, I suggest you get to dialing. Its gonna take you a while.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:17:46 +0000

Un, Mitch, that’s still not the whole story. Yes, there was a budget cut of $12 million, but the processing center only recieved $2.4 million of that cut. This is the area where the reduction in staff caused the state to owe $2 million in interest for the late processing of refunds. In addition to the $100,000 in postage, we also have the cost of envelopes, check printing costs, and staff time to make it all happen. On top of that we also have the cost of computer time and the reporgraming of the computers to actually calculate the interest (see previous story on this). So, yeah, all of these costs ate up the $2.4 million in cuts in the processing center.

This is a perfect example of where making cuts often costs more than fixing other issues. Of course, we don’t really know all of the story behind all of this and what politics are involved behind the scenes. Commissioner Graham is ultimately responsible for this, and he should have insured that resources were where they were needed in order to save tax payers the greatest amount of money will insuring services.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:35:05 +0000

Uh, Bill, read the story. $12 million was cut from their budget, which caused $2 million in interest checks to be sent out, which cost $100,000. So, the savings didnt “literally evaporate” — there is a $9.9 million difference between $12 million and $2 million + $100,000.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:56:34 +0000

Let me get this right…it cost theState of Georgia $100,000 (in postage) because it laid off qualified employees who would have done the job efficiently and in a timely fashion…to save money in a Budget crunch! Let’s add in the cost of the paper, envelopes…not to mention the amount of intere$t for each recipient…and the so-called “$aving$” literally evaporated.