County aims at delinquent taxpayers

Monday, December 5, 2005 11:15 AM EST article source

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham said he has a plan to get determined property tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

The Lawrence County Commission gave its blessing to that plan Thursday.

Burcham said he will create a task force to deal with people who are seriously delinquent in paying real estate taxes and who have made no arrangement with his office to rectify the situation.

“Part of the problem has been, in the past, we had no real, regular means of addressing the problem,” Burcham told the commission. “We're going to be taking a number of measures to bring compliance.”

The treasurer's office expects to have a list within the next week or two of delinquent taxpayers, with those who owe the most and those who owe the least listed in descending order. Those who owe the most will be targeted first.

Burcham said he also plans to schedule public meetings so those who do owe back taxes can make payment arrangements and avoid repercussions.

Burcham said he also hopes to have regular tax sales of properties on which back taxes are owed.

“What I'd like to do is work it into a standard format, say, every April and October, we take a certain number of properties through this procedure,” Burcham said.

In 2003, county officials filed suit against owners of more than 1,500 parcels of property. Some property owners came in and paid their delinquent tax bills; some of the parcels of land were auctioned off.

The entire process netted more than $1 million.