Commissioner Bill James has whacked a hornet’s nest again, this time by drawing attention to the fact that the county has no meaningful mechanism to compel payment of property taxes. Almost 1300 names on the tax-rolls have debts eight-years old or older, representing roughly $6.6m. that the county is owed.
What is interesting to me is the number of non-profits — or presumed non-profits — on the list. Reid Park Associates is on the list for some $35K in back taxes on some of the 34 properties it holds, yet Reid Park morphed into the city’s City West Community Development Corporation, a non-profit according to state records.
You’ll recall that City West popped up at the first of the year as one of the several low-income housing groups that failed to pay property taxes. Does this latest batch of data indicate that old Reid Park tax bills were never paid by City West either? Something is bad wrong — either on the city side, the county side, or both.
Similarly, NationsBank is on the list for $4000. How can you not collect that?
This needs to get fixed.
