Update: Missing Tax Bill Data Stalls Online License Plate Renewal for St. Charles County

St. Charles County residents will be able to renew their license plates online in the near future, said St. Charles County Collector Michelle McBride. However, they are unable to renew their plates right now.

On Thursday, Patch reported that Councilman Joe Cronin, R-District 1, said the county left that a control number on the tax bill receipts do not work. That number proves to the Missouri Department of Revenue that they had paid their personal property tax.

However, McBride said the number is on the receipts. It is listed as the bill number.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Cronin did not have all the information,” McBride said.

Cronin said he did not want to get into a blame game with McBride.

“The bottom line is that to the average guy out there trying to be legal and pay his bills, he’s not going to be able to wait until the end of the month and then renew their license plates online,” Cronin said.

“What matters is the inconvenience to him,” Cronin said. “I just want to get the word out to county residents that they can’t wait until the end of the month and renew their plates online.”

Until the situation is resolved, people will have to go the state license bureau to renew their vehicle plates. Cronin said he notified the and O’Fallon areas so they can adjust staffing if necessary.

McBride said there was a delay in getting necessary information to the Department of Revenue, but the delay was not within her office.

“The county’s own IS (Information Services) Department did not get us the test file extraction that we needed to forward to the Department of Revenue,” McBride said. “With all this controversy going on, they finally wrote the file extraction. But it has taken some time.”

John Sonderegger, a spokesman for the county, said an IS Department worker reported they had not received a request for the test file extraction until earlier this week.

McBride said she sent the test file extraction to the Department of Revenue Thursday. An worker in the Collector’s office said there is not yet a projected date in which St. Charles County residents can renew license plates online.

Thursday's story:

St. Charles County residents cannot renew their vehicle license plates online because of missing control numbers on tax bills, according to St. Charles County Councilman Joe Cronin, R-District 1.

Cronin said the the Missouri Department of Revenue needs those numbers to confirm that residents have paid their 2011 taxes.

Patch was unable to reach St. Charles County Collector Michelle McBride Thursday on the issue.

Software snafu, take two

Problems with new software also delayed the county from mailing real estate tax bills on time. The bills were supposed to be mailed on Nov. 28, but did not go out until Dec. 19.

As a result, the 

Patch is working to find out whether the same company provided the software in both the real estate tax mailing and the online license renewal cases.

Renewal roadblock

Cronin said a constituent alerted him to the renewal problem. When Cronin went online and tried to renew his plates, he ran into the same issue.

He informed McBride of the problem in an email Tuesday writing, “This is unacceptable. Folks in this county deserve better.”

Cronin added he believes McBride has the best intentions for St. Charles County residents.

In his email to McBride, Cronin also said the county should consider seeking damages from the company that provided new software to the city, if that company is at fault in leaving the control number off the tax forms.

“We have spent a lot of the taxpayers’ money on something that wasn’t what was promised. And the county and its residents have suffered damages,” Cronin wrote.