Usually, when I post a thread like this, by this time a couple of people will have posted responses saying or implying that I don’t have a clue what I am talking about.
Perhaps, the title didn’t catch the attention of many. Perhaps everyone who has read the post agrees.
Either way I want to elaborate a bit.
Cost of billing:
- 2 pages of paper - .02
- envelope - .03
- postage - .78
- wear/tear on printer, cost of ink - .02
- payroll costs ($15/hr) for removing statement from printer, folding, inserting in envelope, applying postage and moving to mail pickup - $3.75
Cost of payment processing:
- labor to open mail, record payment, prepare deposit slip - $3.75
Total estimated cost of 2 page bill $8.35 (per county).
The two bills I received are for $6.08 and $6.33.
So for the 2 bills, processed by separate counties, cost is $16.70 versus revenue of $12.41.
I have no way of estimating how many other small royalty interest holders exist, but if the county where the royalty interests reside was the only one to bill and they wrote a single check to each of the other school districts for monies collected, instead of a loss of $4.39 for the additional 2 counties, almost the entire $12.41 of revenue would be a gain.
It seems to me that is a very strong argument that the current procedure is very inefficient.