Tax delinquency has increased

Tax delinquency has increased, treasurer says

URBANA – In another indication of the troubled local economy, more people are behind in their property tax payments than at any time in the last 10 years, according to Champaign County Treasurer Dan Welch.

In legal ads placed last week in newspapers in the county, Welch’s office reported that 2,004 property owners have not paid their property taxes that were due Sept. 1. Last year on virtually the same date, Welch said, there were 1,393 property owners whose tax payments were delinquent.

The delinquent taxes amount to $7.48 million owed to various taxing districts in the county. Last year at this time, the delinquent taxes added up to $4.89 million, Welch said.

Still, he added, 97.25 percent of the property taxes in Champaign County have been paid on time this year. Last year at this time, 98.06 percent had been collected.

The percentage collected at this point has never been below 98 percent since 1999, Welch said, except in 2003, when it was at 97.46 percent.

The county treasurer, in his 11th year in office, said he doesn’t know how much of the late payments can be tied to the poor economy, “but that’s got to be a big part of it.”

“I don’t have any particular knowledge of why people don’t pay,” Welch said. “I hear from people who are mad about having to pay taxes, but not from people who are not paying.”

The last day to pay property taxes at the treasurer’s office is Oct. 27. At 9 a.m. the next day, a property tax sale will be held at the county board meeting room at the Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U.

Welch said he anticipates that half of the delinquent tax payments will be made by next Tuesday.

“I’d be surprised if the tax sale has more than a thousand parcels,” he said. “This year may be a year that surprises me, but I don’t think so.”

Last year, 905 parcels were sold at the tax sale. The number has grown steadily since 2003, Welch said, when the taxes on 581 parcels were sold.

In a tax sale, the actual property is not sold, but the property taxes for the parcel are offered for sale to tax buyers who then collect from the property owners, adding various fees and interest payments. Twenty-three tax buyers are registered for the Champaign County tax sale next week.

The vast majority of the delinquent property tax payments are in the range of $1,000 to $4,000, although there are some parcels in Champaign and Urbana where the taxes owed amount to more than $50,000.

The tax bill on the Gateway Studios building, a north Champaign motel closed last May by the city of Champaign, amounts to more than $74,235. In Urbana, the largest delinquent property tax bill belongs to CTC Properties LLC for an apartment complex at 1505 E. Florida Ave. That tax bill amounts to $264,546.

Developer Chris Creek, who built the apartment complex, said Monday that he plans to pay the property tax bill today or Wednesday.

Welch said he doesn’t review who is behind in property tax payments.

“I just make sure the list is in the paper and it’s published the way it ought to be, because I have to prove to a judge that it’s correct,” the treasurer said. “I don’t go beyond that at all. I don’t want anybody to say to me, ‘Why didn’t you give me a call?’ If I called one, I’d have to call 2,000 people.”

Welch said that under state law, he has to send notices by certified mail to each delinquent taxpayer – at a cost to the county of $3.24 apiece.

“I tried so hard to get that law changed, but (the Legislature) wouldn’t go for it,” Welch said. “Most of these people aren’t going to pick those up at the post office when they see that it’s from the county collector. They know what the situation is. It’s an absolute waste of money. If we sent it by regular mail, more people would end up getting them.”