MOUNT GILEAD — Several hundred property owners in Morrow County accidentally got double taxed, Morrow County Treasurer Mike Goff confirmed Monday.

“It was a duplicate check issue where a check that had been cashed in July was cashed again,” Goff said.

It affected 392 accounts, of which 340 were paying taxes, he said.

“There was no criminal activity. No one is being charged. It was just an unfortunate error.”

Residents who had paid their property tax checks last July, covering the second half of their 2021 tax burden, learned that their checks had been processed a second time Jan. 19, 2022.

Goff said he immediately notified the bank.

“The minute we were made aware of it I was on the phone to Park National and have been working diligently with them,” he said.

Robert Boss, Park National Bank regional president, provided The Sentinel a written statement.

“While this was not a bank error, we sympathize with the residents who were impacted. As a good financial partner, we are working closely with the county and their processing vendor to support their efforts to resolve the issue.”

Goff said in the past two weeks he has “sent letters to the majority of people affected.”

“Nobody has been overcharged. No fees have been charged for overdrafts,” Goff said. “We are working with the banks of all the owners of the accounts … and they are instrumental in helping getting this resolved.”

He said he helped a resident by going to Chase Bank with him to help clear up the situation.

“All they have to do is call me,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to rectify this.”

As an elected official, Goff said he is “taking full responsibility and we are going to get it rectified. Safeguards are in place to make sure it absolutely doesn’t happen again.”

Goff also said the State Treasurer’s Office called him to see how it could assist.

“I’ll work with them to put better safeguards in place. I will get their advice.”

Goff said his office is handling the problem “as fast as we can, and the banks have been great working with us.”

He understands residents are upset. Some have taken to social media to voice their displeasure.

“People elected me because they trust me,” he said. “I will work to regain that trust to those that this happened to.”

The Morrow County Treasurer’s office can be reached at 419-947-6070.

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Treasurer: Working to rectify the problem

By Anthony Conchel

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