Only Suckers Pay Property Taxes

[Bill Call]

The most recent records available from the Ohio Department of Taxation report that there are nearly $5 million in unpaid property taxes due on Lakewood property as of December 31st, 2006. I suppose as of today's date the total is over $6 million.

Of the five million due at the end of 2006:

$1 million is owed the City.
$150,000 is owed the library.
$2.8 million is owed the schools.

The balance is owed to Cuyahoga County.

Apparently Timmy, Jimmy and Jones don't have time to attend to this. Maybe they are too busy dreaming about their new office space. All of that day dreaming eats up a lot of time.

Perhaps the City can act as the County's agent in the collection process. The agency fee would be the County's portion of the delinquent taxes. About $1 million.

A spot check of some commercial property in Lakewood shows quit a few with property tax delinquencies. Some have appraisals at laughably low rates. There must be some special line on property tax bills for a select few that state:

If this tax bill is too burdensome please enter the amount you would like to pay and we will re-appraise your property at a lower rate!

I didn't see it on mine. Perhaps its written in invisible ink. Or maybe you need a secret decoder ring to crack the code.

[David Scott]

A sure fire way to collect these taxes is to tie it to water service. Since water service is a municipal function, it shouldn't be that hard to cut off water to all properties that owe over 1 year taxes

[David Anderson]

Yours is an interesting concept, David. Unfortunately, I believe the rates would increase for the rest of us.

The city must maintain the infrastructure for the delivery of water. The infrastructure doesn't decrease if the number paying in decreases. In fact, rates will increase for those remaining if the number paying in decreases.

However, David, I applaud your goal in trying to identify a way for Lakewood to gain leverage against delinquent owners/banks/managers.

As discussed in the "Attn: 44107" thread, at what point can Lakewood gain ownership of delinquent/abandoned property?

[Will Brown]

Certainly the failure to collect taxes is a problem deserving action.

I don't want to rise to the defense of the four stooges, but my recollection is that a tax lien is obtained by the County Treasurer, and the foreclosure action is taken by the County Prosecutor, and can be a very long process. But neither of these officeholders works for the County Commissioners; we elect them independently. So perhaps we should ask what they are doing about the problem.

This problem is like a coin with two sides: on one hand is the lack of income from tax collection; on the other side is the specter of throwing people out of their homes during hard times. Of the two sides, I think most of our politicians are much more comfortable making gestures at keeping people in their homes, rather than taking actions that will collect money. An evicted homeowner is unlikely to vote for the people who threw him out of his home.

So I think we are unlikely to see any action taken to collect unpaid property taxes in any case until after the mortgage holder forecloses, and then we will be facing a well lawyered entity who will be able to delay the action as long as they need to dispose of the property.

Well, I was never eligible for the homestead exemption, as I was fortunate to have too much income, but they have now changed the law and are passing out exemptions to anyone who is old enough, so I am about to file my application. They say the state will make the county whole for any loss of income (we apparently are not smart enough to realize that the state's revenues will be reduced by the amount I don't pay). This exemption, coupled with the reduction in appraised value we can all anticipate due to the burst bubble) will leave me awash in cash. Another politician's scheme to buy my vote, and apparently such schemes work for most of them.