Paperwork problems cause `tip checks' to bounce

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Checks that were written to restaurant workers from a state Tourism Department account bounced because of a paperwork problem, an agency official said. <br/><br/>Tourism spokesman

Saturday, July 9th 2005, 10:58 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Checks that were written to restaurant workers from a state Tourism Department account bounced because of a paperwork problem, an agency official said.

Tourism spokesman Mike Fina said the problem was that money for ``tip checks,'' as they're called, was deposited and dispersed through the same account that handles fishing license income.

The funds are split between the Tourism and Wildlife departments, and delays caused by deposits and movement of the fishing funds sometimes allowed the account to drop too low. Fina said Tourism financial staff found only five checks were involved.

``We have stopped using that account to pay Wildlife for fishing licenses,'' Fina said.

Money for ``tip checks'' comes from customers who include tips in their credit card payments for meals or other services. Fina said everyone that was owed money has been paid.

Lew Logan, manager of Lake Murray State Lodge near Ardmore, said several employees, most of whom he says barely get by on their income, have had tip checks bounce.

``It's a problem if you're living from paycheck to paycheck, tip check to tip check,'' he said.

Susie Oisten, manager of Lake Texoma Resort Lodge, said some of her employees had problems with tip checks a couple of weeks ago.

``We did have one set of checks that was returned for insufficient funds,'' she said.

Tourism officials in Oklahoma City told her to tell employees to redeposit their checks, she said. When they did, the checks cleared, Oisten said.

Logan said some workers were charged fees by their own banks when checks they wrote on their personal accounts bounced because the state checks had not cleared.