$461 million in unpaid property taxes are due to Cuyahoga County. There’s another $15 in unpaid court costs on top of that.
When Ed FitzGerald’s team looked at the numbers, they discovered that Cuyahoga County has a property tax delinquency rate of 15.2%. That, in a word, is high. Franklin County is at only 7.9%, Summit at 8.7%. With the wallets around the county bearing not much more than a Sears charge card and a couple of balls of lint, that $461 million could come in handy.
Yesterday, Team FitzGerald announced that he is forming a task force to address the problem, ideally to recover as much of the $461 million as possible, but at the very least, to bring that 15.2% number down. With property tax dollars earmarked for schools and libraries and those two groups hurting for dough, it’s an admirable if not essential goal.
“Cuyahoga County has one of the worst property tax collection rates in the state. Improving it by just a few percentage points will net tens of millions of dollars for schools, libraries and cities at a time when they desperately need help,” FitzGerald said via a press release.
Amnesty will be on the table as an option for some of the delinquencies, so don’t think Fitz is going to send henchmen to your door if you’re being by $37, but we wouldn’t rule that option out for those that owe thousands.
According to the PD, the Delinquent Tax Task Force will include: “The task force will include FitzGerald and other county officials; Shaker Heights schools Superintendent Mark Freeman; and representatives from a library district and other local government agencies.” Also, if available, Dog the Bounty Hunter. But that depends on his schedule.
This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2011.
The county has laid off workers to save money, while $461 million dollars in delinquent property taxes goes unpaid. This is outragious! I know a homeowner who owes over $8,000 in delinquent property taxes, yet he has made no attempt to pay this bill. He has no installment payment plan in place or any other agreement to meet this obligation. There are others like him who simply don’t pay their property taxes, while county workers lose their jobs and the rest of us struggle to pay our taxes. It shouldn’t take a task force to recover this money. Neither is amnesty the answer. The county needs to make ALL property owners accountable for paying their taxes, not just let the burden fall on the few of us who willingly do the right thing. Otherwise, let all of us fall $8,000 behind in our tax payments; so that we can all get amnesty and enjoy the saviings!
Well one could mention how many millions were spent on politicians pools and how many millions were lost on favorable property evaluations for insiders and questions should be raised on why multi million dollar bids are given to the higher bidder and not the lowest bidder on projects such as the environmental remediation of asbestos in the county (Old Ameritrust)building but lets not talk about that.
I am currently trying to purchase a home to make livable which is currently condemned and has back taxes. The main thing keeping us from investing in this property is back taxes. The county will not waive them or discuss payments period so we will likely NOT fix up the property and will back away. Does that seem smart?
I wonder how many other homes in Cuyahoga county could or would be rehabbed if the county had some sort of plan. My partner laughs at me for living in Cuyahoga county and in Cleveland. Her 8500 square feet of roof pays less in utilities and water than my small home in Cleveland. Now if have been told I am being forced to use the city garbage cans. I will be charged for rainwater off of my roof and I got a $2,000 water/sewer bill that no one at the water department can explain.
Are we supposed to really take these people seriously?
Hopefully Cuyahoga County will be more careful about the crooks they drag into Cuyahoga County via tax lien purchases.
The last batch of thieves, Plymouth Park Tax Services, aka Xspand, aka J.P Morgan Chase recently admitted rigging tax liens sales in 33 states- including Ohio- and reached a $211 Million dollar settlement.
Plymouth Park Tax Services received a NO BID contract from Cuyahoga County for several years.
Plymouth Park Tax Services owned nearly 100 properties in Cuyahoga County obtained via delinquent tax foreclosure and was delinquent in paying almost every single property- some for well over one year. They only paid after I and Scene exposed them.
They stole property that was owned mortgage free for decades.
Created neighborhoods filled with blight.
And did NOT pay their own taxes.
The county needs to start tax collection on the other batch of thieves also dragged in via delinquent property tax liens- Aeon Financial FBO CapitalSource Bank. They own dozens of properties – all obtained in 2011 via tax delinquent foreclosures.
Nearly 40 properties transferred into this company’s name in February 2011 and they still have not paid their taxes after foreclosing on property owners for not timely paying their taxes.
Aeon Financial FBO Capitalsource Bank, aka Capital Source Bank, filed nearly 2,500 property tax foreclosures since 2009 in Cuyahoga County.
Aeon currently owns 84 properties- all from finalized foreclosures in 2011.
They have hundreds of pending foreclosure cases and the potential to take all of the properties from the owners.
Nearly 40 properties were deeded to Aeon in February 2011. Tax time has come and gone and they did NOT pay their property taxes.
Aeon should not be allowed to continue the foreclosure process on any of their outstanding foreclosure cases until they pay their own delinquent property taxes.
Break down of victims by predatory tax collectors in Cuyahoga County:
GLS Capital filed the following delinquent tax foreclosures:
2001 – 93 foreclosures filed
2002 – 335 foreclosures filed
2003 – 143 foreclosures filed
2004 – 164 foreclosures filed
PLYMOUTH PARK TAX SERVICES filed the following delinquent tax foreclosures:
2005 – 520 foreclosures filed
2006 – 714 foreclosures filed
2007 – 567 foreclosures filed
2008- 629 foreclosures filed
2009 – 129 tax foreclosures filed
Aeon Finanicial fbo CaptialSource Bank filed the following delinquent tax foreclosures:
2009 – 1302 tax foreclosures filed
2010 – 467 tax foreclosures filed
2011 – 795 tax foreclosures filed
Thousands of victims that had to pay 18% interest rates, excessive fees , court costs and attorney fees in order to save their property. The numbers only reflect actual foreclosure filings and does not include property owners that paid the excessive fees to avoid foreclosures.
Hundreds of families lost their properties- some owned mortgage free for decades.
J. P. Morgan Chase and it’s subsidaries, PLYMOUTH PARK TAX SERVICES, aka Xspand, admitted their guilt to rigging delinquent tax liens- right here in our own backyards. And Ohio is part of the $211 MILLION settlement.
The NO BID contract with Cuyahoga County contained very lucrative terms and the contract to the theives was renewed for several years.
And Plymouth Park Tax thieves did not pay their own property taxes for well over a year on almost 100 properties obtained from victims of this predatory lending and our public officials. On many properties, Plymouth Park owed more in taxes than the original owner owed prior to losing their homes to these thieves.
There is hope for individual victims though. The settlement specifically mentions, “
This agreement does NOT cover tax offenses or PUBLIC CORRUPTION offenses of any kind.”
Such big news on J.P. Morgan, aka Plymouth Park Tax Services, aka Xspand, admitting they rigged bigs and the public corruption mention in the settlement leads me to believe that very big news is about to come out regarding Plymouth Park Tax Services and Public Corruption.
Too bad the local media won’t touch this story. Almost seems like they are covering up for someone.