Craighead County Quorum Court hears about delinquent taxes

The debate over delinquent county taxes continued Monday night as Craighead County justices heard from Collector Marsha Phillips. Phillips told the county’s public service committee that her office has collected $139,182 in delinquent business taxes in recent weeks.

The amount is about 20% of what was owed in the past year or so, Phillips told justices. Justices first asked Phillips at its Dec. 28 meeting about the tax issue. Phillips told justices at that meeting that the county was owed $3.1 million in delinquent taxes, split about evenly among business and individual taxes. Since 2008, the county is now owed $611,953 in business delinquent taxes with $352,090 owed for 2014 alone.

Phillips said the work began Dec. 15 in trying to bring in revenue. Other counties are at an advantage in their collections, Phillips told the committee. For instance, Pulaski County has a county attorney who works on the issue while Craighead County does not have a county attorney.

Counties can also seize properties on taxes that are delinquent, Phillips said. However, Phillips said there has not been a writ of delinquency served in Craighead County in the 25 years she has worked in the courthouse.

Grant DuProw, a deputy prosecutor, said his office was assisting Phillips in drawing up a writ to be used. Also, the county does not have the facility to hold delinquent property and would have to have a property with insurance before anything could be stored. DuProw said the issue is not as simple as some might think, with tax collections sometimes going directly to banks and lending companies.

Another way to collect delinquent taxes is to place a lien on the property, DuProw said, noting the lien attaches itself to real and personal property. The lien would be filed in the circuit clerk’s office and would be on file for 10 years, DuProw said. If the tax is paid, the lien would be removed.

Overall, Phillips said the phones have been used to call people who owe money, waiting on customers at the courthouse annex. Typically, the county collects about $200,000 a month in taxes during January. Also, people typically pay their property taxes during February and March due to receiving their income tax refunds.

JUSTICE PAY
Justices voted 11-0 to approve a plan dealing with per diem funding for justices. Under the plan, per diem compensation for justices attending a monthly regular meeting and committee meeting will be 1/24 of the budgeted appropriation in the annual operating budget.

Also, there “shall be no compensation for meeting attended at times other than the above regularly scheduled times, although special meeting may convene when necessary. The issue came to light after it was discovered at least 13 current and former justices have missed meetings since 2013.

Justice Max Render was absent, while Justice Josh Longmire appeared by conference call.