More local residents are losing their cars, being harassed by collection agencies and facing the loss of their homes as tax delinquency rates across the region go through the roof.
Today in Montgomery County, officials will sell to private collection firms the right to collect the tax debts residents and business owners owe the government. About $5 million in taxpayer debt will be sold to the highest bidder, up from $3.6 million in 2007. Officials expect the number to decrease slightly, as some people paid up last week.
The sale serves to outsource counties’ collections, just like the one that was held in Prince George’s last month. There, more than $14 million was up for sale, up from about $10 million in 2007.
“It’s much easier and better if everyone just pays their taxes on time,” said Rob Hagedoorn, Montgomery’s treasury chief. “The sale is a last-ditch effort provided by state law.”
Hagedoorn said the number of delinquent properties did not increase at the same rate. That may mean people have missed both of their semiannual property tax payments, where in years past they only got six months behind.
Bowie resident Kym Kent and her husband owe more than $9,000 for several back payments on a parcel of land they own in Silver Spring.
“It’s the economy, that’s the biggest thing for us,” Kent said, explaining her husband builds churches for a living and lately has not been getting paid on time.
“That’s the situation, and we’ll wait. Hopefully, we’ll have some paid back soon.”
In Virginia, where state law does not allow for the sale of debt, delinquents are more likely to find wages garnished or bank accounts tapped at the hands of the local government.
“We are not nice people, and you can quote me on that,” said Frank O’Leary, Arlington County’s elected treasurer for more than 25 years. O’Leary’s department has seized about 1,400 carsin the past four years to shake money out of local debtors, a more aggressive tactic than most counties have employed.
Even so, at nearly $1.7 million expected by the end of June, O’Leary is dealing with more debt than in recent years, up from about $1.4 million for the years between 2004 and 2006.
In neighboring — and much larger — Fairfax County, nearly $8 million is currently owed, up more than $1 million from 2004. Though nearly all of the money comes in at some point in the future, collections chief Scott Sizemore said the current economic climate is no time for county governments to come up short.
“If you project taking in Y amount of dollars and you only receive X, it doesn’t matter if the money is from this year or last,” he said. “You don’t have it.”
