Aug 27, 2003 By Paul Sunyak 6 min read

Using a statewide survey that shows many counties pay much less for tax collection, Fayette County Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh went on the offensive Tuesday in his quest to switch to a more cost-effective compensation method. Fayette pays a comparatively lavish 3.5 percent commission rate to tax collectors for collecting county real estate and per capita taxes, according to a spreadsheet compiled by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

“When you’re one of the poorest (counties), you shouldn’t be paying the most,” said Cavanagh, referring to the CCAP research. “When the poorest county’s paying the highest amount, there’s something wrong with that.”

With the county rapidly approaching budget-setting season for 2004, in what everyone acknowledges as a tight fiscal time, Cavanagh added, “We have to look at ways to cut costs. This is something that needs to be looked at.”

However, Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites said that while he won’t rule out making a change, he needs more time to do adequate research on the long-term ramifications. Vicites said he wants to balance the interests of tax collectors and taxpayers, and wants to know if services would be affected.

“I don’t want to make a hasty, uninformed decision. Right now, all I see is numbers on a (CCAP) matrix,” said Vicites. “I want to make the best decision for all parties involved, both taxpayers and tax collectors. Any responsible public official needs to totally analyze all the options that are available.

“This decision is very important and I want to make sure I do what is right for all parties involved … This decision may well be decided by the next board (of commissioners).”

Vicites said that under state law the commissioners have until Feb. 15, 2005, or another 18 months, to make any change in the county’s tax collector compensation rate or method. As such, he said there is no way any cost savings could be realized in the 2004 or 2005 county budgets.

When Vicites said he didn’t know what effect making a change would have on taxpayers, Cavanagh retorted that the change he has in mind would lower the cost to taxpayers. Cavanagh acknowledged that Vicites was a “good politician” for how he was spinning the issue, before chiding the chairman for claiming any need for further study.

“There are people who want that tax collector vote,” said Cavanagh. “But you don’t have to do a lot of analysis … we have the lowest budget of fourth-class counties. I think that Vince just gave the standard political rhetoric to appease the tax collectors for his election (this fall).

“I’m not here to appease anybody. I don’t think we should be on the high end. I think we should be in the middle or on the low end,” continued Cavanagh. “The empirical question is, ‘Should one of the poorest counties pay one of the highest rates?’ And the answer is no.”

Vicites added that since none of this was brought up by any commissioner prior to the primary election in which Cavanagh was a candidate, “The timing of this is very questionable to me.”

Fayette’s elected tax collectors currently receive a 3.5 percent commission on all county taxes they collect, a method that costs roughly $255,776 per year after factoring in $18,176 worth of Social Security contributions for that group.

In Washington and Greene counties, county real estate taxes are collected by the county treasurer’s office, eliminating the need to use tax collectors. In Somerset County, tax collectors are paid a flat $2.25 fee on each tax bill they collect, regardless of size of that payment.

And Westmoreland County uses a diminishing sliding scale, paying a 1.2 percent commission to tax collectors on the first $400,000 they collect down to a 0.53 percent commission after collections hit $800,000.

Fayette County Treasurer Robert Danko collects county real estate taxes for Uniontown and Connellsville cities and tiny Ohiopyle Borough. With more cost-effective options available, Cavanagh has repeatedly said he supports slashing the 3.5 percent commission rate or switching to an alternate collection method.

Using the fresh CCAP figures to bolster his argument, Cavanagh noted that other counties clearly have recognized the potential cost savings and implemented changes. He mentioned that one county on the list pays a 2.5 percent commission rate and that several others pay a flat fee of around $2.50 per tax bill collected.

A sampling of others on the list shows many counties are even more frugal when it comes to compensating tax collectors: Adams County pays a flat $1.35 fee per collected bill, Northumberland County pays $1.50 for a real estate tax bill and 25 cents for a per capita tax bill, and Mercer County pays $2.25 for uncollected and $2.50 for collected real estate tax bills.

York County pays 75 cents per bill mailed and $1.80 per bill collected, Warren County pays 90 cents per bill and Union County pays $1.40 per real estate parcel. In Sullivan County, tax collectors get $1.75 per parcel plus 1 percent of the amount collected.

The same 1 percent commission rate applies in Schuylkill County, which also pays $1.80 per real estate tax bill issued and 25 cents for each per capital tax bill issued.

Armed with those figures, Cavanagh said it makes no sense for Fayette to be in the “upper echelon” of having the most costly method of collecting taxes.

Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls said that his citizen advisory group recently discussed this issue, and concluded it wise to examine why differences in rates and methods exist, along with some analysis of how tax collector compensation is related to work loads.

Nehls said another tenet of his group’s recommendation was examining if any rate change would indeed be cost effective.

“Now’s the time to be doing this,” said Nehls of any potential change. He added, “No one’s projecting that we cut the throats of the tax collectors.”

However, Cavanagh said that the high tax collector compensation rate is one of the many sacred cows he’s encountered in 7.5 years of heading county government. Even if the current administration succeeds in making a change, he opined that it would be short lived.

“I predict that even if something is done (this year), it will end up being reversed for political reasons,” said Cavanagh.