To the Editor:
I am a lifetime resident of Cape May County who has always been responsible for paying my bills and have been an asset to the community.
I am a senior citizen who is 80 and made an honest mistake when paying my property taxes before they were due. I did not know that I had made a $2 mistake, as my eyesight is not the best, and I never received a letter or phone call from the tax office telling me of the mistake.
Instead, I received a “Tax Sale Notice” letter. Well, I thought this must be some kind of joke. I looked in my checkbook to make sure and saw that I definitely paid my taxes.
You can imagine my shock thinking my house was going up for tax sale. I am a widow and on a limited income, and there was no reason for anyone to put my house up for tax sale.
I called the tax office first and then went in to straighten this out. That is when I found out that my check was $2 short.
I think it is reprehensible to treat our senior citizens this way. Would it have been out of somebody’s way to just let me know that the check was short?
I think it is totally unfair that I had to pay $42.01 for a $2 mistake, and even after I paid it, I got two more notices of the tax sale. They said they could not take my name off the list, even though it was paid.
I was publicly humiliated. Several of my friends called me because they saw it in the paper.
Surely, if this is how the law is written, it needs to be modified. I am sure you can see the injustice in the way this was handled.
