Town clerk weighing outsourcing tax-bill printing as staff time and copier costs rise

Town Clerk and Tax Collector Brenda DeLong outlined options for producing and mailing tax bills as the council reviewed the clerk’s budget. DeLong said the town prints two tax cycles for roughly 11,000 mailings and that outsourcing the full print–stuff–mail job to a vendor would cost about $10,700 per cycle, while the town’s in‑house costs — including staff time, copier maintenance and paper — amount to roughly $17,000 per cycle when all departments’ color inserts and click charges are included.

DeLong explained the outside vendor would supply paper, envelopes and postage and could store printed materials; the town would still buy envelopes and retain some line items (postage is calculated by finance). Council members noted that net savings appeared modest ($2,000–$3,000) once hidden costs are included but asked the manager and finance staff to break the numbers down by line item for deliberations.

DeLong also described election-related expenses that affect her office’s workload, including programming for accessible voting machines (ABS programming billed per ballot page) and worker costs for multiple elections. She said consolidating polling locations from three to two will save rental costs but conducting three elections in the next fiscal year raises staffing and programming costs, producing a roughly $15,000 increase in election-related line items.

The council asked staff to present a line‑by‑line comparison as part of the Jan. 20 deliberations so that the council can weigh convenience, risk and long-term copier-replacement timing when deciding whether to outsource utility mailings and how to budget for elections.

Ending: The manager and Clerk will provide a detailed cost comparison for the council’s deliberations.