Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Revenue site, phonelines down on tax day

Posted in:

Illinois

Jeralyn Camp waited until the last minute to file her taxes, but she thought it would be no problem because she would just use TurboTax software and submit it online to the state of Illinois.

Until she actually tried to do it.

“I went to the website to apply for a pin to submit my taxes and the site was down,” Camp said. “Then I called the numbers they gave me and they were all busy.”

Camp said she called three different 800 numbers 10 times apiece and got a busy signal each and every time.

The Department of Revenue’s pin application website is down all day today because of a traffic overload, so you have to call an 800 number to get a pin, but that 800 number is perpetually busy because of a traffic overload. The Department’s response…

“What can I say: It’s April 15th,” said IDOR spokeswoman Sue Hofer. “This is why we encourage everyone in the state to file early.”

Sheesh.

* Despite all the jobs created or saved by the capital construction program, Illinois government is still one of the bigger drags on the state’s economy. More evidence…

Officials at one Illinois hospital say they are going to stop delivering babies because the state isn’t paying its bills.

Kewanee Hospital in Henry County says it will close its birthing center this summer.

The hospital claims it has lost $2 million over the past three years because the state isn’t covering its share of the cost.

They say 73 percent of the babies born there were covered by Medicaid or other public aid.

That means, of course, that lots of poor women will have to go elsewhere to have their babies. Wonderful, eh? Also, there’s just one other hospital in Henry County. [Via]

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 12:44 pm

Comments

Just got a call from a guy who called me by mistake trying to get a PIN

Comment by OneMan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:07 pm
If the Hospital is getting Medicaid payments they should be relatively timely. Are they saying the Medicaid reimbursement rate is not high enough?

Comment by BigTwich Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:13 pm
What can I say: It’s April 15th,” said IDOR spokeswoman Sue Hofer. “This is why we encourage everyone in the state to file early.”

On the reverse, we’ve had all year and past experience, shouldn’t we be ready to handle a large volume of calls? I hate excuses like this.

Comment by Fan of Cap Fax Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:22 pm
My guess on Kewanee is they don’t have enough deliveries to make it functional. If they had 188 for FY09 and 73% were medicaid…the article in the Star Courier means they get less than 20 cents on the $1 and cite reimbursement and recession as fault?

Comment by Cindy Lou Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:26 pm
==What can I say: It’s April 15th,” said IDOR spokeswoman Sue Hofer.==

Well, at least she didn’t say “the system worked”. So there’s that.

Comment by Responsa Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:27 pm
How big should the department be to ensure that all 12 million of us can file on 4/15? How big does your computer capacity have to be be to allow 12 million people access all at once. How much does that cost? Then, the system lies fallow for 364 days until the next 4/15?

C’mon, people, tax day is not some mysterious date that is sprung on us 24 hours in advance - it is well known and obvious. You shouldn’t treat tax day like you did all your school term papers. How difficult is that?

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:32 pm
===all 12 million of us can file on 4/15? ===

First, there aren’t that many taxpayers. Second, it should be big enough to handle the load.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:33 pm
I’m a little torn about the website thing. On one hand, I agree with Dupage Dan that you don’t want to buy and maintain tons of servers to handle 2-3 peak days around 4/15. On the other hand, when you’re flat broke, you try to make it as easy as possible to let people pay you, and maintaining a working website is part of the bare minimum services that IDR should be able to provide.

The blame is two-fold. One, tech snafus happen- that’s why the snafu acronym means “situation normal…” Taxpayers should not wait until 4/15 to apply for a PIN. And if this is not the first time filing, they should have a PIN from the previous year. Still, IDR has to make sure they have the capacity to handle the surge of 4/15. You know it’s coming; find ways to deal.

Of course, Ms. Camp has another option. She could /gasp/ print out a copy of her return, stick it an envelope, and /double gasp/ mail it at a post office to meet the deadline. It’s really shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

Comment by South Side Mike Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:41 pm
Where are all of these women supposed to deliver their babies? Can the hospital turn them away if they show up in labor? Yet another huge blow for women’s health care.

Comment by Really?? Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:42 pm
===You shouldn’t treat tax day like you did all your school term papers.===

I sure hope the system is back up and running before 11:59 tonight…

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:44 pm
My favorite was a few years ago and I owed them some money and it took them 40 days to deposit the check.

Comment by OneMan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:51 pm
It’s not that big of a deal - why the whining?

Ok, 12 million was a bit off - how many taxpayers are there in this state? 5 million? How much capacity should there be to handle all the late filers? For all 5 mil? Really? Cause all it takes is one person complaining and all the complainers are yelling about how incompetent the agencies are. Simple fix for this. Do it earlier. I am the biggest procrastinator - if I blow it and can’t get in I will just have to mail it. Sheesh.

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:52 pm
Sorry, not much sympathy for the last minute filers. While the state should be ready for an increase in business for today, there is no indication that they are not. It’s just like the traffic jam every morning and afternoon on the highways around Chicago. It would be foolish and a waste of resources to build the roads to accommodate peak traffic without some backup.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 1:57 pm
The State could contract with bandwidth cloud utility providers like Amazon if they need day only or week only resources.

If the State is too ignorant to look into it, surely there is a lobby to adjust their eye sockets.

You can always print and mail your tax return.

Comment by Brennan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:01 pm
==if I blow it and can’t get in I will just have to mail it==

I agree, dan. I tried 4 times yesterday & was never able to access the IDOR e-filing system. It went in the mail this morning. Don’t lay off all the people that process paper!

Comment by bcross Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:03 pm
There has been a lot of carping about the State having too many employees. Revenue does ramp up hiring for a couple of months at tax time to deposit checks and update the taxpayer files.
But to have to hire people to man phones for one day to give out pin numbers would be a waste of taxpayer money!
Ms. Camp has 9 hours left to file. I am sure she can do it on time.

Comment by Taxpayer Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:06 pm
I agree that taxpayers shouldn’t wait to the last minute, exactly because of problems like this; but I also think that the state is obligated to maintain a system that is capable of handling the possible load. No, they don’t need to build some huge system and allow it to lie dormant for the rest of the year–they can do like other organizations do–rent capacity as needed or build their own capacity and lease it out to other organizations at other times. That’s what cloud computing is all about. Amazon offers cloud services exactly because they’ve built a system capable of handling load and they don’t want it to go to waste during low demand–they lease that capacity to others like you and me.

Comment by Squideshi Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:14 pm
Also… I was told by someone at Revenue that as long as you PAY what you owe — or what you reasonably think you owe — by April 15 you get an automatic 6-month extension (until Oct. 15) to file the actual return.

So, if you’ve already done the calculations with TurboTax or some other program, or by hand, and know how much you owe, if anything, concentrate on getting the check mailed in today, and worry about the forms later.

Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:14 pm
Frankly, the state shouldn’t operate any data centers at all. They should be leasing all the necessary bandwidth. It’s flexible, cost effective and secure.

The same thing for call centers.

Comment by Brennan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:17 pm
Also, for those who live in the Springfield area, Revenue has a drop box outside the Jefferson Street entrance to the Willard Ice Building. It looks like a gray post office box and you can access it from the driver’s side of your car.

Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:18 pm
=Where are all of these women supposed to deliver their babies? Can the hospital turn them away if they show up in labor? Yet another huge blow for women’s health care.==

It is so sad that I have to explain this… There is a system in place… Poor people have their babies, the hospital provides care, the state reimburses the cost (actually part of the cost) of the treatment. It is a very sad situation for Kewanee (My hometown is 20min away), but the fact that people think the hospital is to blame!! Oy, if I stopped getting paid, I would stop working. These hospitals put up with a lot from insurance companies and the government. So, have some sympathy for the people trying to provide the care, not the people holding it up!!!

Comment by Heartless Libertarian Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:35 pm
The fact is, the best system will fail from time to time despite every effort to use the latest technology (or, in some cases, because of it). We hear about concert tickets going on sale and the ticket office servers going down. That’s life. Get over it and mail it.

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:40 pm
Revenue doesn’t lease time on a cloud computer because of security issues. Do you want your tax return on a non secure computer? How can the state insure privacy? We would really have something to complain about if the state did that!
Simple answers are usually worth what you pay for them.

Comment by Elliot Ness Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 2:53 pm
Thank you Mr Ness. I certainly wasn’t aware of security issues with any cloud program. Imagine the howls if that were to happen. Good thing Brennan isn’t in charge of that! How hard can it be?

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 3:43 pm
And yet 49 other states manage to accomplish this without their systems crashing….

On an semi-related note to the thread: it’s clear that the state isn’t paying their vendors 100% of the bill, or at the very least are kicking payments WAY down the road. Question: how does the state decide to pay their bills? Is it done strategically? Or is it just an automated system where they’re paid in the order received?

If it’s strategic, I’m wondering if there couldn’t be a cottage industry of either collections agencies or of lobbying services–not to get NEW contracts, but simply to make sure you’re one of the vendors that gets paid relatively quickly.

Comment by ABCBoy Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 3:58 pm
Another Illinois state tax tip (from a Sun-Times article): if you filed electronically last year and had a PIN issued to you at that time, you CAN use the same PIN over again. If you saved print or electronic copies of last year’s return you should be able to find it.

Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 4:00 pm
Under the ARRA regulations, the State of Illinois must pay all Medicaid bill from doctors, hospitals and nursing homes within 30 days of receipt. Otherwise we lose billions in enhanced match. So the State has, in fact, reduced the payment cycle for those vendors.

Comment by hate to confuse you with the facts, but Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 4:10 pm
Wow, last night around 9-10pm I was periodically trying to sign in to get pins for me and my wife. Site said busy, then I got mine, then said it was down. I kept trying and close to 10, I finally got my wife’s pin.

I was slightly surprised that they weren’t prepared for the hit they were going to get.

Yes I know you shouldn’t wait til the last minute, but looking at years past, how many times on the news did we see the post offices in big cities, with special dropoffs for last minute taxes? They knew it was coming.

Comment by Concerned Voter Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 4:11 pm
The cloud may be appropriate for your Facebook or your Twitter data, but tax returns are another thing entirely.
Do you want all of your tax data physically in another country? Is that acceptable?
What if you lose your connection to the ‘cloud’?

This is also a lose-lose for Revenue. Pay the premium for one (or 2-3) day, peak load access with five nines uptime, and people will bitch because of the extra expense. Don’t, and people complain because they can’t file at the last minute even though they had 2.5 months to do so and their PIN was probably already mailed to them.

Hint: you can get your PIN anytime after Jan 30 or so. You don’t have to FILE your taxes then, and you can get your PIN in about 5 minutes on a non-peak day.
Hint 2: The State’s online filing is free. You don’t have to pay for the state package in TurboTax or TaxCut.

Comment by Cloud Cuckooland Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 4:38 pm
This is Central Management Services! They are the agency in charge of servers. Where is Director Sledge? The consolidation of servers to CMS has been awful for everyone.

Comment by Vapor Man Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 5:25 pm
Who is in charge of the Revenue Servers? I think this happened last year too. What is going on? I think we should hear from these two agency heads.

Comment by Philly Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 5:54 pm
Revenue designed, developed, and still fully manages these systems. These servers were specifically excluded from IT consolidation at Revenue’s request and insistence.

Comment by Boris Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 7:50 pm
“What can I say? Too bad taxpayers can’t arbitrarily change their accounts payable terms like the state does….”

Comment by Vote Quimby! Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 8:28 pm
Hint: In January, you get your tax info from your employer & you have all your records from the past year on hand and fresh in your mind. Plus the weather is crappy. Why not file in Feb?

This is the State’s way of encouraging people to file early. Smartest thing they have going.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 8:41 pm
Boris you are wrong. CMS has full control of the IDOR servers. This is not an isolated incident and only because of the tax rush. This continues to be an issue with CMS and they are not held accountable. The IT consolidation is a failure and waste of taxpayer money.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 9:28 pm
so most of the babies born in Kewanee’s hospital are on Medicaid? So people who can’t afford children are having children? Why is this the state or the hospital’s fault? Yes they need care, but perhaps they should consider that before the child is conceived? Just sayin’

Comment by really? Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 9:52 pm
The DOR site was down yesterday too. I had the same problem. After two days, DOR finally posted info on alternative ways to find the PIN #. Frustrating to say the least…..

Comment by Reformed Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 10:06 pm
I have a great deal of sympathy for Kewanee hospital. I had heard that 2/3rds of all births in this state are Medicaid — but 73%? WOW. This is pathetic, and it is about time that the state starts going after the daddy’s for the birth cost. I know of someone who bought a home with the babydaddy, but didn’t marry him so that the state would pick up the birth costs. That’s wrong.

Comment by justfedup Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 11:05 pm
Is this an AT&T issue?

Comment by main street Joe Thursday, Apr 15, 10 @ 11:18 pm
The phone lines weren’t down - they were overwhelmed.

Comment by Regnad Kcin Friday, Apr 16, 10 @ 7:27 am
==Revenue doesn’t lease time on a cloud computer because of security issues. Do you want your tax return on a non secure computer? How can the state insure privacy? We would really have something to complain about if the state did that!==

Security is a spectrum, not an absolute; and cloud computing can be made more secure than you suggest. There are, for example, different types of clouds–there are public clouds and there are private clouds. In any case, the cloud computing model was just an example of “capacity shifting.” It doesn’t exactly apply to the situation at hand because what we’re really talking about here is phone lines. I thought everyone would be able to get the analogy. Hopefully, I’ll learn from that mistake. Shifting capacity for phone lines is even easier and more common.

Comment by Squideshi Friday, Apr 16, 10 @ 12:21 pm