Council business—Village picks new tax collector

Village Council agreed Monday to hire a municipal tax agency to collect Village income taxes.

The group, the Regional Income Tax Agency, or RITA, will replace the City of Dayton as the Village’s income tax collector.

Dayton, which had provided the service for more than 30 years, announced last month that it would no longer provide tax collection services to other municipalities because of budget concerns.

The Village levies a 1.5 percent income tax on people who work in Yellow Springs and in some cases who live here. Village officials have identified the task of finding a new way to collect income taxes, and now working on the transition from Dayton to RITA is the Village’s highest priority.

Because it would normally take RITA six months to set up a new account, Village Manager Rob Hillard said he would immediately start working with the agency on the transition.

“The sooner all our accounts are switched to RITA, the more comfortable I will be,” Council member George Pitstick said.

This year, the Village expected to receive $1.4 million in income taxes, an amount which accounts for 64 percent of the general fund’s revenue. The general fund includes the administrative offices, the parks and streets departments, Council and the mayor’s office.

During Council’s meeting Dec. 16, Charles Hawk, a marketing specialist with RITA, gave a presentation on the agency. Hawk stressed the agency’s tax collection experience, which dates back to 1971, when 38 municipalities organized the Regional Council of Governments to administer tax collection. RITA is directed by a nine-person board of trustees.

Today, RITA works with 97 communities in 26 counties throughout Ohio, and collects taxes for 89 of those municipalities. It has offices in Cleveland and Columbus. It maintains more than 835,000 accounts and last year collected more than $410 million.

Hawk said RITA would charge the Village a collection fee of between 2.38 percent and 2.88 percent of income taxes it collects, or $35,000 to $42,000 a year.

Hillard said he recommended RITA because of its experience with multi-jurisdictional collections, working with tight time frames and its collection process. In addition, the agency said it would not charge the Village extra to set up the collection service, Hillard said.

For more information on RITA, see the agency’s Web site, www.rita.to. Business forms for 2002 are now available for download on the site. After the meeting, Hawk said 2002 individual tax forms would be available on the site by the end of the year.

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In other Council business:

• The Village is now accepting bids to farm farmland the Village owns. Unlike the past couple of years, Council agreed to enter into a three-year lease on the land, which includes the 44-acre Glass Farm, off King Street, and 43 acres of the Sutton Farm, off State Route 43.

For more information, call Hillard, 767-1279.

• Dayton Street resident Jackie Waggoner expressed concern for speeding vehicles on her street. Hillard said the Village could conduct a speed study on Dayton Street.

—Robert Mihalek

Council goal, budget sessions

Village Council will hold several special meetings in January.

Council’s annual goal-setting meeting will be held Thursday, Jan. 2, 6:30 p.m., in the Council room, Bryan Community Center.

Council will hold a special meeting Saturday, Jan. 4, 9 a.m., in the Bryan Center, meeting rooms A and B, to discuss the next steps in the community visioning process.

Council will hold three budget workshops on Wednesday, Jan. 22, Wednesday, Jan. 29, and Thursday, Jan. 30, 7–9 p.m., in the Bryan Center, meeting rooms A and B.

These meetings are open to the public.