From the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Monroe County government has given 105 property owners a good reason to be mad, and the rest of us another reason to question how well taxpayers are being served by some office holders.
This started with a mistake.
County Treasurer Cathy Smith sent mailings to tax-delinquent property owners telling them they had until July 13 to pay a “pre-certification” amount to keep their properties from heading for a tax sale. Problem was, the lawful deadline was July 1.
The 105 property owners mentioned above paid that fee by July 13 and thought they would be removed from the list. But they missed the real July 1 deadline, and their properties have been certified for the tax sale, which means they must pay all delinquent taxes, special assessments, penalties and any other costs that have accrued — and that includes a state-mandated $25 fee and $150 for a title search done by lawyers in the county’s legal department.
The issue now is in the court of auditor Amy Gerstman, who says she’s considering approving payment plans for owner-occupied properties. Yet, even that will result in those taxpayers ending up with a bigger bill than they should have had because they will have to pay the full amount they owe.
It appears the best that can be done for them now is to allow them to pay their bill on a payment plan rather than all at once. Hopefully, auditor Gerstman and treasurer Smith will be able to work out that solution — at least for properties that are people’s homes — to take some of the sting out of this mistake.
The fact remains that some taxpayers were not well served because of Smith’s mistake, and that’s unfortunate.
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/08/25/digitalcity.another-error-gives-taxpayers-another-reason-to-be-angry.sto
