Attorney Fee Increase Okayed

An ongoing issue received a hesitant go-ahead this week as the City Council approved additional funding for city attorney fees.

The ordinance on the table in its final reading stated, “The City of Salisbury's projection indicates an increase of $26,000 is needed in the FY13 appropriations for the City Attorney in order to meet the projected requirements for legal fees for the remainder of FY 2013.”

City Attorney Mark Tilghman explained he is concerned because for the first time this year the city will begin collecting personal property tax, which amounts to over 300 cases and only 10 percent of those cases have been initiated. Tilghman furthered the tax returns are sent out monthly with an expiration date.

“I do not want to go to work on that, and then find we have lost revenue we should have captured,” he said. “I would not anticipate that would take a huge number of hours … but that is something that was not considered in any of these estimates, it was all based on prior issues and this is a totally new issue.”
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