Missing taxes may lead to missing trust
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed September 19, 2007 in The Homer Index

Last week, the Index reported that $2,500 in funds had gone missing from the Village of Homer’s property tax collections. The city council and the auditors realized - and hoped - that the findings could have been the result of an accounting error, so the auditors rechecked the records only to come to the same conclusion. The money is gone, and it’s not coming back anytime soon.

There are basically two possibilities, either someone stole the money, or it was lost. If it was lost, the responsibility for the missing funds would fall directly on the employees of the village office, top to bottom, past and present. If the money was stolen, the village employees, top to bottom past and present, are still painted in a bad light because it is they who would be atop the suspect list, regardless of the truth. While on the subject of the truth, I should mention that it is only thing that is less likely to turn up than the money.

If the money was stolen, the situation is simple. Whoever did it is a despicable person and should be, in the words of interim village manager Jerry Stonebraker, “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” There is no debate there.

If the funds were lost, the situation becomes more complicated as we must delve into the difference between an honest mistake and an acceptable one. People make mistakes, and I will be the first to tell you that I make them all the time. On second thought, the entire girl’s volleyball team, Sharon and anyone whose name I’ve ever misspelled would probably be the first ones to tell you I make mistakes. I can guarantee, however, that I would be next in line.

God knows people lose things. I can honestly say that regardless of when this article is read, there’s about a 95 percent chance that my keys are lost, three pair of shoes are unaccounted for and my cell phone is absent.

My keys and misspellings, however, are not taxes, and when such mistakes are made, my own credibility and professionalism may take a hit, but the institution I represent does not. The second people start losing trust in this paper, or any other place I ever work, because of my mistakes, I promise you my last day will follow shortly.

If the funds were lost or thrown away, I certainly would not look down upon any parties responsible, but whether I would be willing to let them handle my tax money, or run the village office again, is a completely different story. The village council, top to bottom, needs to approach this situation with that in mind.

This very well could have been an honest mistake, but it is far from what I would classify as an acceptable one. The village cannot operate under the looming possibility that such mistakes could happen because people will lose trust in our institutions as a result. It’s a harsh and grim reality, but it exists nonetheless.

As strange as it may seem to suggest, this is not - nor has ever been - a “money issue.” The funds will be reimbursed through the village’s insurance, and policies have been enacted so that such a theft or mistake could never realistically go unnoticed again. But, there is no policy that insures trust, and there is no premium high enough to ever cover it if lost. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.