Greenwich Tax Collector Tod Laudonia at his impeachment trial Don't know exactly what tool that lady is holding, but I assume it's intended for tax payers,
FWIW’s Scusie trekked out to the municipal golf course and found our new tax collector, Tod Laudonia, at the 19th hole and asked him about the f..k up with the tax bills. Laudonia was both unrepentant and unconcerned.
“Hey, it’s not my fault,” he whined. After spearing the olive in his martini and chewing it thoughtfully, he explained: “It’s all about this Tyler Technologies, some friggin Texas company that’s supposed to to do my work for me, and they screwed up. They took two whole weeks to work out a software problem, so why pick on me?”
Scusie asked Laudonia when he first notified Tyler Technologies of the problem and he shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe June 1st.”
“Why so late? Didn’t you know months before that that bills had to go out by June 30th?”
“Oh for Christ’s sake, girl, get off your high horse. We don’t have to send out bills at all! The state statute says the taxpayer is responsible for their taxes. There’s no requirement for the tax collector to send bills. We post a couple of notices in the newspaper and bingo! We’re done. Bills are just a courtesy to taxpayers, like a hold-up note to a bank teller. All you really need to do is screw the muzzle of a revolver up her nose and you’ll get the money – the note’s just more polite. Homeowners don’t like it, screw them, the friggin’ crybabies.”
“But how will taxpayers know what they owe?” Scusie asked.
“This is Greenwich, baby,” said Laudonia. “People are sophisticated. They should call our office and when they eventually get through, they can learn the new mill rate. Then they come down to Town Hall, go to the Assessor’s office to see what their house is worth, multiply that by the new mill rate and come down the hall and pay us – we prefer cash, by the way, wink wink, nod nod.”
Laudonia then abruptly ended the interview, explaining that he still had another nine holes of golf waiting. Later attempts to reach Peter Tesei, the purported First Selectman of the town of Greenwich were unsuccessful. When he returns from Nantucket in September, FWIW will send Susie out again to see if she can secure an interview with the missing man.
For What It's Worth 
Chris … is there a recall provision under state or town constitutions ?… If not … its time to put one in !
Why can’t we just do everything online? When I sell some piece of junk that’s been sitting in my attic on EBay, the buyer usually pays me via PayPal withing minutes of buying the item. I get an instant e-mail documenting the transaction and the money flows right into my account so I can turn around and spend it and help stimulate the economy.
you can view your bill online on the town website and pay as well if you would like with your Amex Black Card (dont mind the transaction fee!). My taxes went up 50%!
When I was in college I was the Tax Collector for a small municipality (the Borough of Bantam.) It was a part-time job, I think it paid a couple thousand dollars a year.
In 1989, during the tax payment period, a freak tornado destroyed the entire town. The next day, dozens of worried people told me that they needed new tax bills. (Many of them crawled under live wires to get to my house to tell me so!) One problem though — the borough’s computer had also been destroyed together with the Borough Hall.
It never occurred to me to tell these people (who had lost their homes and cars and much of their personal possessions) ” it’s not the fault of the town.” I was the Tax Collector, it was clearly my responsibility to make sure people knew how much they owed in taxes. Working by daylight and flashlight, I copied out each tax bill by hand for people who lost their bills.
How much work would it have been to send out an informal form letter summarizing each taxpayer’s tax obligation? An hour to import it into an Excel spreadsheet, a couple of hours to write the macro to print out a few thousand letters, a few hours to print the letters, an all-night letter stuffing party or two? Whether he’s legally obligated to send out bills or not, he should have moved heaven and earth to make sure that taxpayers got bills. I think that most current and former tax collectors would agree with me. Many honest hard-working people worry sick over taxes.
Bring back Lou Caravella.