Honolulu is spending $50,000 in taxpayer money to reprint and mail thousands of bungled property tax bills that got stuck in a bureaucratic time warp.

Nearly 136,000 bills sent out Friday mistakenly identified the tax year as "2006-2007," instead of the correct year, 2007-2008.

A vigilant taxpayer spotted the error and alerted officials, said city treasurer Edlyn Taniguchi, who took responsibility for the gaffe.

"We were so focused on the tax portion of the bill that we completely missed the typo on the date when we reviewed the proof submitted by our printer," she said. "It's never happened before, to my knowledge and, believe me, it'll never happen again."

All other information on the bills is correct, and the portion that taxpayers remit with their payments did not include the faulty date, Taniguchi said.

To avoid confusion — and possible legal problems — officials decided to reprint the bills, but payments made with either one will be valid, Taniguchi said.

The city hopes to send out the corrected bills by Friday.

The total cost to print and mail them will be $56,000, including $44,000 in postage.

The city's printer, Electronic Management Support and Services, graciously offered to absorb half the $12,000 cost of reproducing the corrected bills, officials said.

That leaves the total cost to taxpayers at $50,000.

Taniguchi said officials considered cheaper ways of notifying property owners about the error, but decided that the safest course of action would be to mail new bills.

Many owners are nonresidents who would not necessarily hear of the problem through news media, she said. And city ordinances require that tax bills be mailed.

"We don't want to leave anything open to dispute, and that's why we're re-mailing the bills," Taniguchi said.

The city is working with the printer to devise a way to have future tax bill dates automatically updated by computers so the mistake won't be repeated, she said.

"Even though there was a mistake, there's improvements that accompany it," Taniguchi said. "It's not a total loss."

City Council chairwoman Barbara Marshall called the mistake "unfortunate."

"It sounds terrible, but I understand how those things happen," she said.

The error underscores the importance of careful proofreading, Marshall said.

"It certainly is regrettable that we have to spend the money to reprint, but in an abundance of caution, I think it's the right thing to do," she said.

Tax payments, which cover the first installment for the 2007-2008 tax year, will still be due by Aug. 20, officials said.

Property owners who fail to pay by the due date because they did not receive tax bills will still face penalties: up to 10 percent of their tax liability, plus interest of 12 percent per year. A bounced check carries a $20 penalty.

Property owners who pay their taxes directly, rather than through mortgage payments, and have not received their bills should check on them by calling the city tax office at 523-4856.

Information can also be found at www.honolulupropertytax.com.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.