Smith reflects on 'taxing' job

Many hours of collecting taxes and keeping records has come to an end for Hempstead County Chief Deputy Tax Collector Quetta Smith. She collected taxes in the Hempstead County Courthouse for 35 years.
“When you have been there that long you have worked with a lot of people; good people,” Smith said.

Smith was teary eyed as she talked about the people of Hempstead County and her co-workers over the years.
“It has been a big part of my life for a long time,” she said.
Smith said she plans to make efforts to keep relations close with those she worked with for so long, but it is time to enjoy a different side of life for a while.

“They are a lot like my family, but I told them I will be back. They are not getting rid of me,” she said with a smile.
Smith experienced many changes throughout a 35-year career in the tax collector’s office.

“When I first started we had no computers and did everything by hand, even in the assessor’s office, we had to fill out the assessment sheets from scratch. We had to hand write all the statements and write down their names. We would write down a description of the property, then we would go to the big, red tax books and get the tax amount and put it on there. We had to add it all up, mail them and then collect all the taxes,” Smith said.

“There was such a difference you can’t even compare it. It may take 25 seconds to do what we used to do in an hour ot two,” she said.
Smith said businesses such as a timber company would be especially laborious.
“A timber company would have thousands and thousands of acres. It used to take a half a day or longer to do one timber company. Now it takes not even 10 minutes,” she explained.

Smith said over the years the workload also increased. With more businesses and property being bought, that brought more responsibility into her office.

“Hope has changed so much over the years that I have been in the courthouse. Last year we collected over $4 million dollars,” she said.
Smith seemed proud of the accomplishments of the collector’s office over the years and of the courthouse in general.

“In the 35 years I was there, I don’t think we were written up for anything. They make a suggestion, but as far as saying we did anything wrong, they did not,” Smith said referring to state auditors.
She said Hempstead County Sheriff Jerry Crane, along with the others she worked with, Lile Easterling, Don Worthy, and previous county judges, “were good.”

“They were all good. Jerry was a great boss. All the ones I’ve had have been great. We’ve got some good county officials. People talk about politicians and how corrupt they are, that they will promise one thing and do something else. I can honestly say I do not think any of ours have done that,” Smith said.
Smith said she was happy to be a part of the efforts of the Hempstead County Courthouse staff.

“I have gone to enough meetings and talked to enough people to know that every courthouse does not run as smoothly as ours and hopefully it will continue to do that because we have some good people coming into office,” she said. “I would like to express my appreciation to the county. It has been a pleasure. I have enjoyed my job.”
Smith said she was told many times that she was a lot like her father, Dalton Smith, who worked until he was 82 years old and stopped only then to care for her mother.

One memorable time for Quetta involved a Hope Star  newspaper carrier, Roy Brossius, who published a letter in the paper after he had witnesses a person being rude in the collector’s office.

 “He stopped that person and said, ‘You just do not know how hard these people work and you don’t need to talk to them like that.’ He had a letter put in the paper about how nice the workers were in the collector’s office and that people should appreciate them,” she explained.

Smith said in her job she dealt with those who were “irate.”
“But there has been more good times than bad,” she said.
She has spent her first few days of retirement as a new “grandmom” to her Christmas present, a new puppy named Snuggles, and sleeping late a time or two.

She said she is grateful to have worked with so many good people and a good community.