There’s been no shortage of attention shown to the list of delinquent tax payers recently published in the Manhattan Mercury newspaper with many voices in the region pointing to that list as an example of lost funds that could be helping city and county governments pay for services.
Those lost funds, if recouped, could maybe even help reduce mill levies and now both the city and county are being asked by citizens to go after those delinquent tax payers.
While local government officials have said they’d like to that, Riley County Counselor Clancy Holeman informed county commissioners Thursday morning that’s easier said than done.
“Those delinquencies that are out there that show up in those publications, that is not some pool of money the county is ever going to see,” Holeman said. “A lot of the public mistakes that. They think well, just make these people pay that, or foreclose on them immediately and you’ll get that money.
“That isn’t how it works.”
Holeman said state law doesn’t declare those delinquencies as personal debts of the taxpayer.
“That’s why people walk away from real property tax obligations,” he said. “Because they’re not going to be chased as they would be if they had a mortgage on the property. There’s no personal obligation to pay that debt. It simply sits there on the property. ”
Holeman said state law is crafted to protect people from losing their property and that tax sales of those properties just return a percentage of those funds back to counties.
“It’s a process that does not generate revenue, for the most part,” he said. “It’s a loser, financially, for counties.”
Instead, Holeman suggested commissioners propose a statute to the Kansas Association of Counties that those delinquent in real property taxes not be allowed to register their vehicles until those taxes are collected.
“I don’t believe for a second it would pass,” Holeman admitted.
Commission Chairman Ron Wells said he’d like to suspend payments to developers delinquent in taxes if the county is paying them for a job.
“That list in the paper was atrocious,” Wells said. “I don’t think we should be doing business with companies that are on that delinquent tax list.
“We’re hamstrung on real property. So what we are doing is dictated by state statute.”
In other items, Riley County Register of Deeds Debbie Regester reported to commissioners that total year-to-date revenue in her department is up with $748,121 collected so far in 2015 compared to last year’s figure of $676,319.
