$2 property tax refunds? Mecklenburg seeks end to small checks

In a meeting with state legislators from Mecklenburg County, county officials on Monday asked the state to set a minimum amount of money for which local governments must write checks.

There’s a good reason for that.

The state law that forced Mecklenburg to review its 2011 revaluation requires the county to refund all overbilled property owners among the 353,000 parcels that are under review – no matter how little the amount.

So Mecklenburg has sent out checks for as little as 81 cents, plus 11 cents interest. Of the 101,486 checks cut to date, 18,438, or 18 percent, were written for less than $2 and 36,551 for less than $5, said Mecklenburg Tax Assessor Ken Joyner.

“The state statute says you must refund and gives us or the municipalities no latitude,” Joyner said. “The municipalities have probably cut checks for 25 cents.”

So county legislative liaison Brian Francis urged legislators to set the minimum at $2 to $5. He said officials have heard from taxpayers wondering why the county is going to the expense of mailing checks of such small amounts.

Francis spoke to the legislators at a breakfast where Mecklenburg, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and court officials for the 26th Judicial District laid out priorities for the upcoming legislative session that begins in January.

CMS also wants state approval to create its own charter schools. The district said it wants pre-K programs to be fully funded. It currently gets money for 20,000 students, but Sink said an additional 40,000 could potentially be eligible.

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 6:47 PM with the headline "$2 property tax refunds? Mecklenburg seeks end to small checks."