County denies request to waive fee for late tax payment

Standing firm in its practice of not abating tax penalties, the Rock County Commissioners denied a Luverne resident’s request at their June 21 meeting.
Patti Overgaard explained at the meeting that she wrote two personal checks and placed two payment stubs in an envelope May 15.
No payment was recorded at the auditor-treasurer’s office nor have the checks cleared the bank.
She has since written different checks after receiving the late notice.
Overgaard requested abatement of the $23.70 in late penalties.
“I know it’s not a lot but it’s the principle of the thing. We did drop off the payment,” she said.
Overgaard said her significant other, Frank Mongold, hand-delivered the tax payments to the auditor’s office in the courthouse on May 16, the day the taxes were due. Overgaard said Mongold couldn’t remember the name or a description of the employee who accepted the payment envelope.
Mongold, who didn’t attend the commissioners meeting, didn’t receive a receipt for the hand-delivered payments.
Auditor-treasurer Ashley Kurtz said anyone presenting a payment to her office is asked if a receipt is needed. As is also standard practice, all payments are credited to accounts the day of receipt.
“Even if it’s 9 at night, nothing gets carried over to the next day,” Kurtz said.
No one in the auditor-treasurer’s office recalled Mongold submitting a payment on May 16, and Kurtz’s office staff have since checked garbage cans and payment envelopes, which are kept on file.
The commissioners unanimously denied Overgaard’s request.
State statute provides tax penalty abatements in instances in which a penalty or interest has been ‘erroneously or unjustly’ levied.
Commissioner Ken Hoime said if Overgaard’s payments were discovered in the auditor-treasurer’s office, they would reconsider a refund.
In the past year the commissioners have denied two other late payment penalty abatement requests. Combined, those penalties totaled more than $79,660.
All tax penalties become property of the auditor-treasurer’s office.