CLEVELAND — Homeowners in some parts of Cuyahoga County are being billed for property taxes twice due to an error at the county’s Fiscal Office.
The county said it accidentally sent tax bills without special assessments included to people in Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland. In Shaker Heights, the special assessments were for tree trimming and streetlights. In Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland, the assessments were for streetlights.
Once the problem was discovered, a second bill was sent with the assessments added. Homeowners who paid the first bill will have to figure out the difference between the first and second bills and pay that, not the full amount of the second bill. One homeowner who contacted News 5 had to pay an additional $104 on top of what they originally paid in property taxes.
County spokesperson Mary Louise Madigan said they didn’t send individualized notices with the exact amount still owed for the special assessment in an effort to get the information out quickly to homeowners.
The County is trying to identify how this mistake happened. The note from the county states: “The Fiscal office is working to determine why this occurred so that it doesn’t happen again.”
Madigan said the county has old computer systems and they are also trying to determine if this was a training issue.
