Petersham’s tax collector is hoping for a raise this year.
Tax Collector Renee Wingertsman is requesting a $3,000 raise in the budget year that begins July 1.
Her principal argument seems to be that a survey of surrounding towns shows “Most of the towns pay better than Petersham.” That’s saying something, because most employees of the North Quabbin region’s small towns can argue they are underpaid.
Discussing spending for the coming year with the Selectboard and Advisory Finance Committee recently, Wingertsman proposed a total department budget of $33,787. The total salary line is $15,721, including the $3,000 pay raise. The remaining line items are the same as this year.
Explaining her workload and perhaps to justify a raise, Wingertsman noted that she collected $70,000 in back taxes this year from delinquent taxpayers.
“I have 12 people who were going to be put into tax title,” she said. “Four are now on payment plans.”
Wingertsman says the collector’s office is open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Mondays, and by appointment, and the total number of hours worked is “maybe 15 to 20 this time of year.”
If taxes are not paid on time, late fees are added and interest accrues at a rate of 14 percent per year. It was noted that Wingertsman is allowed to keep late fees. A member of the finance committee said it’s one way her wages are supplemented.
Asked how much she gets in late fees, she replied “It depends on how fiercely I go after the taxes.”
Reviewing the information Wingertsman submitted to the board regarding area towns’ collection practices, Selectboard Chairman Nancy Allen said, “Looking at the data, if we changed your salary we would need to look at the fees. It may change the structure. We need to look at the whole picture.”
It makes sense to look at the context of any raise request. Other employees are seeking raises for next year, too. Do they deserve 24 percent raises also? Raises have been recommended for the town treasurer, animal control officer, Board of Health office assistant, building office assistant and the Selectboard office assistant. But the raises are more in the $1,000 range.
We think that anyone is justified in asking for a pay raise. But Allen is right to want more information and to see the big picture before granting a 25 percent raise to the tax collector. For example, when you add in the fees, how much does the collector take home? When is the last time the collector got a raise? Is there a way to measure the collector’s success rate at doing her job? Maybe she deserves a bigger raise?
It may be that Petersham has so underpaid its collector over the years that Wingertsman is clearly undervalued and underappreciated at her current rate. But we have to believe that parsimonious New Englanders like Petersham’s taxpayers will want assurances that the answers to at least some of these questions went into the decision to grant such a big one-year raise.