The 4/15 ran late
I don't envy the boys and girls at Tri-Met these days. Diesel prices are through the roof, ridership on transit is way up, and so the money and the system are both being put to the test.
On the financial side, their situation can't be helped by a phenomenon we experienced at our house this year. We mailed our Tri-Met self-employment taxes (around 0.6 percent of our self-employment income) to the Oregon Department of Revenue on time, on April 15. But the ODOR didn't cash our checks on behalf of Tri-Met until May 20 -- 35 days later. Now, the time value of money on a relatively small check like ours isn't that big a deal, but when you add up all the checks that apparently sat around for a month, it would probably pay a couple of drivers for a day or two.
Maybe somebody in Salem ought to put on more some help opening those envelopes at crunch time. Of course, it can't be just any old temp, given the security concerns involved, but still... time is money.
| Posted at 10:49 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (2)
Government entities sometimes have a little problem with cash flow management.
Some years ago my son signed up for summer session at Grant High. I wrote the check and mailed it in May. His classes were supposed to start in mid July.
After the fourth of July, my check still hadn't cleared. I called PPS, fearing that my son was not enrolled. After being passed through to a couple different people a clerk told me he was enrolled and not to worry.
"We've got a whole pile of those checks sitting here," she said. "We just haven't bothered to take them to the bank yet."
Posted by Dave Lister | June 11, 2008 1:20 PM
Good thing you are not the money receiver. I used to work for a government agency as an analyst, but the agency's procurement department would let invoices constantly fall through the proverbial crack. In some cases, the agency got in arrears to a vendor for as much as three years worth of work. This mostly happened because agency folks would change positions and drop any responsibility for the outside contract administration.
Posted by Bob Clark | June 11, 2008 2:29 PM