Plum resident says mailed tax payment was lost; 21% penalty followed and he urges borough policy change

During the public-comment portion of the Feb. 25 Plum Borough School District board meeting, resident Tim Sandstrom of 707 De Havilland Drive said a tax payment he mailed on Dec. 14 under the district’s three-installment plan never arrived at the borough tax office. He said the next day he received a collections notice and, after calling the collector, discovered his owed amount of $610 had increased to $728 — a roughly 21% increase — because the district had been processed as delinquent.

"I was slammed with a 21% penalty for something the post office screwed up," Sandstrom told the board, and he urged the borough to change its practice of automatically turning accounts in as delinquent on Jan. 15. Sandstrom said the borough’s Jan. 15 date presents a timing problem because many banks issue monthly statements on the 16th; a taxpayer who only learns of a missing payment on the 16th can already be delinquent under the current policy, he said.

Sandstrom said he visited the borough tax office, where an employee named Emily confirmed his December check had not arrived and told him the district had no penalty on file at the time. He recommended shifting the delinquency processing to February so that mailed payments and monthly bank-statement timing would be less likely to trigger automatic penalties.

Board response and context Board members acknowledged Sandstrom’s comments but did not take action during the meeting. The statement was recorded during the public-comment period; the transcript does not show follow-up by borough tax officials or a board directive to change the delinquency date.

Ending Sandstrom concluded his comment after the allotted time and the board moved on to the president’s report.