NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Seventy-three-year-old Frank Alford lugged a 21-pound box to the counter.
“I’m here to pay my taxes,” he said softly.
Without glancing at the box, Floyd County Treasurer Darlene McCoy asked, “Are you paying by check?”
Pay with one piece of paper? Not when 9,553 pieces of paper are more symbolic.
To protest a property-tax increase, Alford, the owner of 11 rental homes in Floyd County, paid his September property-tax bill in dollar bills, a day ahead of Friday’s payment deadline. He’d borrowed the money from a credit line at Your Community Bank in his native Floyds Knobs.
“It’s going to take a while to do this,” McCoy told Alford, who replied, “I’ve got all afternoon.”
McCoy carried the bills to her desk and began counting them herself while three other clerks fielded other property owners’ less remarkable payments. The process began at 12:50 p.m. and ended just before closing time at 4 p.m.; an average payment takes a couple of minutes.
“I can’t see making other customers stand in line and wait because one person comes in to do that,” McCoy said Tuesday when alerted to the possibility of a large cash payment. “I just don’t think that’s fair to the other people.”
McCoy had never seen someone pay a tax bill in dollars, and she has worked in the office for 20 years.
Alford was inspired by a 33 percent increase in his bill. It grew from $14,418.26 last year to a total of $19,106.92 this year. The Thursday payment was for the spring installment of this year’s total.
If the bill increases much more next year, the dollar-bill stunt might not be an option.
“My doctor said I can lift up to 30 pounds,” Alford said.
At a gram each, 9,553 dollar bills weigh about 21 pounds.
Alford was asked whether he might be inconveniencing the wrong people, since county treasurers don’t dictate the property-tax rate. Many Hoosiers are seeing a rise in their property-tax bills because of a change in the way property values are assessed.
“I think they all work for the same government, and this is just one way of making my protest known,” Alford said. “Seems like the politicians think money grows on trees, when they don’t use any restraint themselves.”
Alford said he’s considering paying the same way in November, when another $9,553.46 is due. But as long as he wanted to make his protest known, why not pay in pennies?
“I thought [about] it, but I can’t carry that much,” Alford said.
Nor could anyone else; a load of 955,346 pennies weighs about 5,254 pounds.
Eric Scott Campbell writes for The Tribune in New Albany, Ind.
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