County cracking down on delinquent taxpayers

Monday, April 17, 2006 11:14 AM EDT article source

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham is making good on his promise to take action against property owners who do not pay their fair share.

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham has turned over to the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office the first 72 names of delinquent property owners from a list of more than 7,000 people.

These are people who have fallen behind on their property taxes and have made no arrangement with his office to pay the delinquent amount.

The delinquent property owners were first sent a letter asking them to either pay the full amount or sign a contract to pay in installments.

Once all of the delinquent property owners are contacted, the prosecutor’s office will file a lawsuit against those who did not respond to Burcham’s letter.

“We really do want to rectify this before get to the point we file a lawsuit,” Burcham said. “If you are delinquent on your taxes, you will get a letter. There is no doubt about it. We are working with more serious delinquencies first but we will work through the list we will be addressing everyone whether it’s $100 or $1,000.”

Burcham said while the first 72 names came from a list of delinquent property owners in the first seven taxing districts in the county districts, it also included the names of those property owners who made the treasurer’s office’s Top 10 most egregious delinquencies list made public late last year.

In the first batch of letters, 110 people were sent letters. Thirty-eight of the 110 have either paid or made arrangements to pay their taxes.

“In the first group that went out, we got back in excess of $94,000 already,” Burcham said.

The 72 remaining names accounts for approximately $310,000 in unpaid taxes.

Within the last two weeks, another 100 delinquent property owners in districts 8 to 16 have gotten such a letter, asking them to contact the treasurer’s office. Burcham said he hopes to have the whole list of delinquencies forwarded to the prosecutor’s office by the end of the year.

The last time the county filed such a lawsuit was in 2003. At that time, a lawsuit was filed against the owners of approximately 1,500 parcels of land on which more than $3 million in delinquent taxes were owed.