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MINGO JUNCTION -- A bill for $351,278.06 is no laughing matter.
That's the amount in delinquent property taxes, interest and penalties Mingo Junction is saddled with paying to the county after more than five decades of failure to do so.
Mayor Judy Ruckman said that's "a lot of money we still have to come up with" -- money the village will be strapped to put forward, in light of concurrent financial hardships like needing to credit residents for its two years of collection from an income tax levy that was never renewed.
The property tax bill covers the village's 56 delinquent parcels, out of the roughly 120 total village-owned parcels. These delinquent parcels were never granted property tax exemption by the state, leading them to accrue over time, the oldest parcel having been delinquent since 1968 and amassing $35,851.83 in dues since.
Village Solicitor Craig Allen said the delinquency first came to his attention around late January or early February, when he found a stack of bills on his desk -- at that time for 37 parcels, with the earliest delinquency year being 1972.
At present, the village can enter either a 10- or five-year payment plan with the Jefferson County Treasurer's Office that would halt the accrual of further interest and penalties, provided the village stays current on payments. This is the treasurer's office's standard payment plan offered to all individuals attempting to pay off their delinquent taxes. Ruckman said the village is waiting to assess its financial situation before starting on the plan.
Mingo's situation is similar to what occurred March 2, 2023, in Wintersville, when officials reported the village owed the county $138,368 in delinquent taxes, interest and penalties.
According to Wintersville administrator Jesse Kosegi, the village's then-outgoing fiscal officer had presented a number of tax forms needing to be paid. In turn, a visiting clerk inquired as to why the village was paying property taxes, as it should have applied with the state and been exempted.
That launched the village's investigation into the issue, after which Kosegi located property tax bills, sent to the village from the treasurer's office, which had been "initialed and stamped" by the previous village administrator and placed in a locked drawer in the city building. Like Mingo, Wintersville's oldest delinquency dated back to 1968.
It was "tight," but the village paid its entire bill by cutting a check from its general fund, Kosegi recalled. Once the village was square, it filed the properties for tax exemption going forward.
Kosegi said municipalities racking up delinquent taxes seems to be a common occurrence in Ohio, based on Wintersville's conversations with the state at the time.
That statement was supported by comments from Chief Deputy Auditor Dean Ferguson, who said tax delinquencies extend from municipalities like Mingo and Wintersville to the county and even the state itself.
Allen agreed, citing conversations with the auditor's office. He speculated further that, for whatever reason, the knowledge that a municipality must apply for tax exemption for each obtained property was lost in these cases, and the fact was never passed on through future administrations. Thus, he said, it's possible officials began taking tax exemption for granted, believing a municipalities' properties are exempt by virtue of belonging to the municipality.
"The knowledge of 'When you get to take property, you file the exemption form' I think was lost because people just assumed it was in the name of the city or village, so therefore it's exempt," he said. "Then the predecessors possibly passed that misunderstanding down, (saying,) 'Put those in the drawer, we don't have to pay those.'"
Allen said handling of the property tax bills is an across-the-boar" process in village government, and Mingo's Ruckman is working to develop better "sharing and redundancy" safeguards to prevent information like the exemption form necessity from falling through the cracks in the future.
In the end, it's the village's fault for not paying, Kosegi said, but a heads up from the treasurer's office would have been appreciated.
The treasurer's officer delivers property tax bills every January and June. If a delinquent parcel has more than $100 in delinquent taxes by September, a courtesy letter is sent informing the owner that his or her property will be placed on the newspaper's certified delinquent property list, after which penalties begin to accrue.
Wintersville's bills have been located, but Mingo's allegedly still remain missing in action, according to Allen, who claimed he doesn't know where the letters were being delivered, resulting in his shock upon the 37-property stack arriving early this year.
Ideally, Ruckman said, such letters would arrive at the city building and be sorted by the clerk, with the tax-related forms making their way to the solicitor. She said the village has no record of receiving such letters from the treasurer's office. The only similar thing would be the original 37-property stack, as well as the full list of bills recently delivered to the city building and addressed to the village, to the attention of the deputy clerk.
According to Jefferson County Treasurer Ray Agresta, his office has the city building, 501 Commercial St., as the mailing address for all of its property tax bills -- 32 single bills and 38 in a "coded group," totaling 32 mailed items that should have been received twice per year.
Agresta said he was able to produce multiple letters from the Jefferson County Prosecutor's Office notifying the village that, if its taxes are not paid, then a certain property could be subject to a tax foreclosure sale.
Ruckman questioned further: If delinquent properties are subject to tax foreclosure -- by law, two years after becoming certified delinquent in the paper, according to prosecutor's office paralegal Kayla Largent -- then why were no sales ever pursued?
Assistant Prosecutor Corinne Marshall said that, as of now, being owned by the state, county or a municipality automatically disqualifies a property from being put up for a tax sale.
The prosecutor's office is generally indiscriminate in the certified delinquent properties it files for a tax sale, Marshall said, but municipal properties are out of the question due to their being developed for public use. For example, the office wouldn't foreclose on a municipality's water plant, as that would negatively impact residents. In Mingo Junction's case, a number of water plant parcels really are delinquent.
Marshall declined to speculate on whether Mingo failed to apply for tax exemption or even applied and was denied by the state. What matters, she said, is that the taxes get paid -- taxes that fund local services, like the school district.
"My understanding is that the treasurer, auditor and prosecutor are willing to work with everyone," she said. "The goal is not to sell people's property. The goal is to get the taxes paid."