The Arts Tax Oversight Committee directed the Revenue Division to present Portland city commissioners with options for altering the tax's 5 percent administrative cost cap, for further consideration in 2017. April Baer / OPB

The committee overseeing Portland’s arts tax has directed the city's Revenue Division to engage collections agencies for accounts more than $100 overdue.

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A resolution on collections for the $35 tax will go before the City Council in mid-June.

The draft language suggests a plan by which the city would send out one final round of notices this summer and refer the delinquent accounts to the city's collections agency this fall.



Revenue Director Thomas Lannom pointed out the city, constrained by a 5 percent administrative cost cap, has fewer than five people collecting on 450,000 arts tax accounts. That's a fraction of what other bureaus, such as those overseeing utilities, have collecting on bills.

A second resolution presented by the Arts Tax Oversight Committee notes additional revenue might be collected if the tax's 5 percent administrative cost cap were changed or eased with a one-time subsidy payment. The resolution directs the Revenue Division to draw up options to guide a potential change in hopes city leaders would consider them in 2017.

Lannom said the collections would not cost the city. The agency would include its fee in the balance collected from delinquent taxpayers.

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