Board approves moving long-unpaid tax accounts to suspense list

The Board of Finance voted June 9 to move a package of long-unpaid tax accounts to the towns suspense list, a bookkeeping designation that removes those items from the active grand list but does not rule out later collection.

Finance director: “It doesn't mean that we can't collect that money. It just means that we are not actively pursuing the collection of” the accounts, the finance director told the board while explaining the town uses the suspense list for accounts it deems uncollectible after collection efforts have failed. The items under consideration in the packet came from 2019 and 2020 and, she said, are largely motor-vehicle accounts.

Board members asked clarifying questions about what the suspense designation means and whether penalties or interest are included; the director said the packet amount shown includes taxes, interest and fees as the balance that staff sought the board to consider. The board moved and seconded the action and approved it by voice vote; the transcript records a general voice vote in favor and no recorded roll-call tally.

Several members asked staff to improve the minutes' wording around the action so the record is clear that moving accounts to the suspense list is an administrative accounting step that can be reversed if funds are later collected. The board also asked staff to annotate the packet language to make explicit that the listed overage on a town-council line stemmed from a claims-and-judgments charge tied to a vehicle collision that damaged Center Station and that that amount was charged through the current chart of accounts.