LAKEWOOD RANCH -- About 1,000 households here will be getting some mail this Christmas season, but it won't evoke any holiday cheer.

The letters sent to residents of Community Development District 5 will contain a second tax bill, an apology and an explanation for the extra bill.

It turns out that Severn Trent Services, the company that manages the district's finances, made a mistake and sent last year's budget to the Manatee County Tax Collector.

The budget supervisors approved for 2006 was about 4 percent, or $64,303, higher than last year.

Now Severn Trent has to collect that money from among the 962 households in the district.

As expected, residents are not looking forward to the additional tax bill.

"That's borderline incompetent. There wasn't any due diligence in the process. No one checked it; no one validated it," said resident Arthur Flood, adding that his opinion was based on limited information. "There should be some grace period about when the money's due."

The amount that is due varies. Some residents were undercharged about $220, while a few overpaid about $18.

"The supplemental assessment that will be coming out will just correct the error. It is not raising taxes," said district supervisor, Dick Coleman.

CDD 5 pays Severn Trent about $24,000 a year for all the services it provides, including record keeping and financial management, said Supervisor David Brucker.

The company is composing the apology letter to accompany the bill and will absorb the cost of correcting the mistake.

"Clearly, it was our error," said Bob Fernandez, assistant secretary to the CDD and a Severn Trent employee.

The tax mess by Severn Trent follows a mistake by the company last month in which it provided the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections with an outdated map of CDD 4.

As a result, about 120 people were given a misprinted ballot that did not include their local CDD race.

CDDs are special taxing districts that maintain infrastructure like roads and retention ponds.

CDD 5 comprises the northern portion of the Golf and Country Club. The annual budget is slightly more than $1.6 million.

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