County commissioners have agreed to advertise Franklin County’s upcoming tax certificate sale in newspapers in Panama City and Tallahassee.
The delinquent tax sale will take place on May the 28th this year.
This is the second year in a row the tax certificate sale will be advertised in newspapers in larger cities, but tax collector James Harris says he feels it is necessary to insure that the tax certificates get sold. Harris said that this year’s sale is already looking a bit bleak because a major local purchaser of tax certificates, who usually spends about 250 thousand dollars during the sale, will not take part this year.
Currently about 19 percent of local property taxes have not been paid – which is about the same as last year at this time.
Tax collector James Harris said the unpaid tax certificates equate to several hundred thousand dollars in taxes for the county and it’s important that they be purchased by private citizens. Those that remain unpurchased go to the county, which can mean it will be several years before the county can collect the money.
That also puts the county in the uncomfortable position of possibly having to evict people from their homes in the future. In fact the county is currently sitting on about 12 thousand dollars in tax certificates that come due this year and the board will have to decide soon whether to evict the residents and auction the homes or let the certificates lapse and lose the money.
The tax collector also recommended that the county try to find 250 thousand dollars in its budget to set aside in case it does have to buy up more tax certificates this year.
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