“Ever since I’ve been here that’s one of the highest ones I’ve seen,” Stan Adler, the treasurer’s taxpayer services manager said.
The prosecutor’s office has had to get involved in Halcomb’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy because her former plan didn’t adequately address the back taxes. Her attorney, David Kruer, declined to comment on the case and wouldn’t allow his client to comment either.
Halcomb has filed for bankruptcy seven times since 2006, according to records obtained by the Journal-News. During a recent hearing in federal bankruptcy court, Halcomb was asked why she didn’t pay the taxes.
“I just didn’t,” she said.
When her husband Claude Halcomb took the stand at the hearing and Assistant Prosecutor Dan Ferguson asked him about paying taxes, he had a bit more to say.
“There is a certain point where you kind of like, where you lose heart, you just don’t care anymore and sometimes you get regenerated, there’s a little bright light at the end of the tunnel and you want to try to do it again,” he said. “That’s where we’re at.”
After that hearing, Ferguson said the judge made a decision in favor of the county.
“In a conference with the judge, a settlement was reached that gave us what we want,” he said. “She has one last opportunity to sell the properties located at 1990 to 2020 South Erie and the property located at 850 South Erie. She has a deadline in October to pay the taxes. If not, the stay is going to be lifted and we’re going to proceed to sheriff’s sale on these two properties.”
Schools take hit when taxes unpaid
For tax year 2015, which is payable this year, Treasurer Nancy Nix billed 164,555 real estate parcels $489 million on behalf of local schools, governments and other taxing entities. The average collection of delinquent tax bills is almost $15 million. There are 4,690 delinquent properties that owe $12 million.
The schools take the biggest hit when bills remain unpaid because they collect the lions share of real estate taxes. Hamilton City Schools Treasurer Bob Hancock said as of June 30 the district was out $2.2 million, which is eight percent, of the $29 million they are supposed to receive. Hancock said things are getting better though, the outstanding amount in 2012 was almost $3 million.
“The school district cannot use dollars they have not received so delinquent taxes limit the amount of financial resources that are available to fund the academic program in a particular school year…, he said. “On a positive note the amount is steadily declining and that can probably be attributed to the improvement in the economy since the 2008 housing crash.”
In Lakota Local Schools, the county’s largest school district, tax collections are very healthy according to Treasurer Jenni Logan. For 2015, Lakota’s collection rate on local taxes was 99.4 percent and last year it was nearly 100 percent. Logan said that equates to about $984,000 and $60,000 in delinquencies, respectively.
“We are fortunate to live in a community where our businesses and residents pay their taxes. While every dollar certainly counts and is used to expand student opportunities, in an annual budget of about $150 million, delinquencies of this size have very little impact on our daily operations,” Logan said. “We are grateful for that show of support from our community and the county that helps ensure we are getting the dollars we’re counting on each year.”
‘You can’t foreclose a road’
Countywide tax collections over the past five years have gone from $439 million in 2011 to $475.4 million in 2015.
The second highest non-payer is Old River Valley Place of Nature Foundation with a $140,341 outstanding bill. The parcel was previously known as the Schlicter landfill and the prosecutor’s office has a hold on collections because there are Environmental Protection Agency fines on it.
“The prosecutor has notified us that we cannot take action against the Old River Valley property because there are EPA fines against the property,” Adler said. “If we were to take action on it and nobody buys the property, then we’re stuck with the property and the fines.”
There is one other EPA hold on the list for $43,623 and an odd instance where part of Smith Road in West Chester Twp. is being taxed and $34,875 is on the tax rolls.
“Bottom line is you can’t foreclose a road,” Ferguson said.
He said he ran into a similar with Ohio 129 years ago and scoured the law to find a way to get the tax bill erased, short of a legislative fix it can’t be done.
The Journal-News made Sen. Bill Coley aware of the problem last week.
“We will get this fixed,” he said. “We’ve got a meeting with tax interestingly this afternoon and we’re going to put that on their radar to get this fixed.”
Ferguson said the process for trying to collect unpaid taxes can be a long one. Taxes for 2015 will be declared delinquent at the end of this year by the county auditor. A year after that they can begin foreclosure, and that process takes three-to-seven months, depending on other liens, title and process serving issues.
He said his people take a methodical approach in collections to ensure they keep a steady stream of income flowing to the taxing bodies.
“Each year when the delinquent list is certified my staff start at the top and start working on the highest and work their way down. They also mix into the mix some portion of the oldest,” he said. “They go as far as they can on that list and collect as much as they can and by the end of the year they’re never get through the list, there’s always some left over, but they’ve collected the highest and the oldest.”
A balancing act
Cases don't automatically go to foreclosure. Many, like the Forest Fair Village Mall, can enter repayment agreements with Nix. In 2013 the mall was second on the delinquent list, owing $549,000, now the mall has dropped down to numbers seven and eight on the list, their outstanding bill is $133,179 and they are current on their payment plan.
Nix said there are situations where people default on their payment plans, sometimes multiple times, and that’s when the hard decisions come in.
“Do you foreclose on them, kick ‘em out of their house or shut down their business? So it’s real life issues…,” she said. “We do try to work with every taxpayer, while also keeping in mind that others like us are faithfully paying every year, so it’s a balancing act.”
There have been discussions about using third party tax collectors, like Montgomery County does, according to Nix. But the prosecutor’s office is “adamantly” against that. Ferguson said they have a good, automated system here and it is working. He said they are also not going to “saddle” their taxpayers with an 18 percent interest rate.
“Under no circumstances are we going to take a percentage of taxpayers and saddle them with this high interest rate when I firmly believe the bulk of our taxpayers operate in good faith,” he said.
The ones that don't pay however make budgeting a challenge. County Administrator Charlie Young said while property taxes are not their biggest revenue source, it still is difficult budgeting when you don't know if everyone is going to meet their obligations.
“You do have an expectation that some of this will be difficult or it will take some time to collect, so you temper your requests and expectations a little,” Young said. “That money is critical, although it’s not the dominant component, sales tax is for the county, but property taxes are on the order of $12 to $14 million, so that’s a big number for the general fund but an even bigger number for mental health, children services, all of the voted levies.”
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