VIRGINIA BEACH
John Atkinson is the only treasurer in Virginia who is losing any state funding for positions this year, and he's questioning the standards that brought on the cuts.
Atkinson said his office must cut back on some state-related services, including help ing residents with state income tax returns, because of the $34,000 reduction.
"You cut me, I cut you," Atkinson said of the service reductions.
Based on new workload calculations and office vacancies, the state's Compensation Board withdrew its share of the funding for three positions. Two of Atkinson's employees will be moved to other city offices and one has retired.
Atkinson now has 74 full-time employees. Salaries are shared by the city and the state.
"The number of positions is driven by the standards," said Robyn de Socio, executive secretary of the compensation board.
The workload standards allot a weighted amount to such things as dog licenses, real-estate tax abatements and vehicle decals.
Atkinson said those standards are flawed and don't give cities such as Virginia Beach enough credit for such services as making sure transfer taxes on deeds are right and are sent to the correct address.
All the workload data is self-reported, and Atkinson questioned whether some communities inflated their numbers. Some communities had unusually high numbers of scooter and moped registrations and others that have eliminated vehicle decals still claim to issue them, Atkinson wrote last month in a letter to the chairman of the compensation board.
"The comp board is acting on inaccurate data," he said.
Catheryn Whitesell, the Beach's budget director, said that when the city looked at Atkinson's workload, his office was one of the busiest in the state.
De Socio said the board does review the data and looks for changes from year to year. The state treasurer's association also occasionally audits the reports, de Socio said.
This past year, the state found that 46 offices had discrepancies from the year before. About half of them were justified because of a change in work and the rest were corrected, de Socio said. She said she hadn't looked at the specific cases Atkinson cited.
Still, the state will start reviewing the workload standards for all constitutional officers, including treasurers and sheriffs, in the coming year, de Socio said.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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$34K
Did I read that right, all this over $34 THOUSAND why is this even a news story, many government depts are seeing cuts in the 6 figures and still managing to make things work.
most government data is flawed
We see examples of voodoo statistics manipulated to fit the immediate need in order to influence the public's opinion. Look at what they're doing with Global Warming and the second hand smoke push. It's all crap.
Isn't that their job?
"Atkinson said those standards are flawed and don't give cities such as Virginia Beach enough credit for such services as making sure transfer taxes on deeds are right and are sent to the correct address."
That would be the minimum requirement - I would think - for a job in the Treasurer's office! You want CREDIT for doing the minimum?
If you don't do your job right - you SHOULD lose it!
What a professional
"You cut me, I cut you," Atkinson said of the service reductions. This is the type of comment you'd expect from a street thug not a professional city employee. Wouldn't think someone responsible for the collection of city taxes would say it's ok not to pay them on time either, remember the brothers, so guess I'm not suprised.