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| Kicker is Official! |
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The state economist has announced the 2006 personal income tax kicker is to be mailed by December 15, 2007, and will be 18.6 percent of each taxpayer’s 2006 Oregon personal income tax before credits. The total projected amount is $1.07 billion.
Not every Oregon taxpayer will get a kicker. We don’t issue checks for less than $1. If a debtor owes a fine through OAA or taxes, the Department of Revenue will use the kicker to pay off those debts. Any remaining kicker funds will be distributed back to the debtor.
Learn more about kicker information and the kicker calculator on www.oregon.gov/DOR.
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| Hey, Did You Know? |
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Nikki Bennett, the program analyst for OAA can answer your questions about:
- Monthly reports
- Money transfers
- File transfers
You can reach Nikki at (503) 945-8771 or by e-mail at nikki.bennett@state.or.us.
Dorothy Ellis, one of our public service representatives for OAA can answer your questions about:
- Account resolution issues
- Credit balances
- Account discrepancies between OAA and assigning agencies
- Misapplied payments
You can reach Dorothy at (503) 945-8206 or by e-mail at dorothy.l.ellis@state.or.us.
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| Other Agency Accounts is Restructuring to Better Serve Our Client Agencies! |
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Many of our client agencies let us know through the customer service survey that it would be helpful to have a specific agent, or group of agents, dedicated to their accounts. OAA agreed this would be a terrific way to do business and created the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) team. This team has increased collections for OHSU and has also been successful in improving communication.
Based on the success of the OHSU team, we have restructured our agents into specialized teams focused on specific types of debt and the various tools that are available to collect payment. This will give us the opportunity to provide all of our client agencies with great customer service and the potential to increase collections. The five teams will be:
- OHSU/Public Employees Retirement System
- Courts
- Sheriffs and Corrections
- Higher Education and Community Colleges
- All other business type accounts.
Upcoming issues of the OAA Communicator will highlight the new teams and provide additional information about the restructure.
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| New Credit/Debit Card Payment Procedure in OAA |
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Other Agency Accounts has revised their credit/debit card payment policy and procedures. Debtors who phone in their monthly payments now have the option of using their Discover®, Visa®, or MasterCard®. There is no fee to the debtor to use their debit/credit card to pay their OAA liabilities.
Changes have been added to ensure security and reduce fraud. The caller is required to provide the credit/debit card security code, verify cardholder billing address, and give the name of the bank the card is drawn from each time a payment is made. Verifying billing addresses for card holders on each phone call ensures that agents have current debtor account contact information, and using the ZIP code on credit card payments reduces merchant’s fees paid by the Department of Revenue. Direct debit may soon become available as an option for making payments.
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| Success Story |
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Other Agency Accounts sets goals for collection totals every two years. This total is determined by previous biennium collections, and estimates how the economy will affect collection efforts. For the 2005-07 biennium OAA estimated collection totals to be $72 million. This total comes from a combination of restricted accounts (placed with OAA for offset only), and non-restricted accounts (placed with OAA for full collection). Collection dollars come from voluntary payment plans, garnishment payments, and offsets. OAA met their goal this biennium and exceeded this goal by more than $4 million! Total collections for the 2005-07 biennium were $76.6 million. During the 2005-07 biennium OAA was faced with many challenges and changes. Through it all we have managed to meet our customer’s needs and fulfill our obligation as a state agency dedicated to serving the public. We feel this is the ultimate success!
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| Chris's Corner |
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Other Agency Accounts has just hired 14 new revenue agent 1s. We are working diligently to train them and get them up to speed in order for them to successfully collect the accounts you send. We are excited about the quality of these new individuals and how well they are acclimating to our work environment and the pace at which they are learning. We anticipate a strong team of new and seasoned staff. Along with this new hire group, we are in the process of restructuring our work. We are going to focus on type of debt to better serve you and your account needs. This is in response to feedback we received from you in our last survey. We will be contacting many of you to introduce you to the teams that will be collecting your debt. We are continually looking for ways to improve our processes and collect additional money for your programs.
We are in a unique situation this year with kicker—hopefully you have referred your accounts to take advantage of this rare opportunity to receive additional revenues.
We look forward to the year ahead with the anticipation of collecting more than in the last biennium. Our collection goal for 2005-07 was $72 million. We exceeded that goal by $4.6 million. Our goal for the coming biennium is $78 million.
I encourage you to give us feedback through our website or give me a call with your suggestions, concerns, or praise. We are working for you and value your input on how we can do a better and more efficient job. Working together we can accomplish great things.
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| Subscribe to OAA Communicator |
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Our newsletter, the OAA Communicator, is now in an electronic format. If you would like to receive notification when it is published, please subscribe here.
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| Contributors to this Issue |
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Chantele Collier-Ngin, Rosemary Watts, Christine Kotter, Danette Nemeyer, Marilyn Lamberson, Chris Gasperini, and Beth Buck.
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