County Delinquent Tax Borrowing Approved

At its Feb. 16, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners passed a resolution permitting the county treasurer to borrow against the amount of delinquent property taxes in all 80 taxing jurisdictions throughout the county, including cities, townships, schools systems and libraries, among others. After March 1, these jurisdictions turn their delinquent taxes over to the county, and are reimbursed for that amount. The county treasurer then assumes responsibility for collecting these delinquent taxes. This is a standard procedure that’s conducted annually at this time of year – the borrowed funds are used for cash flow purposes, to fund operations for the first half of the year.

In a cover memo accompanying the resolution, county treasurer Catherine McClary reported that the amount of delinquent taxes turned over to her office for collection has more than doubled in the past seven years. And for the last two years, the county was not able to self fund the delinquent taxes. McClary expects a small increase in delinquent taxes this year, but asked to borrow the same amount as last year – an amount not to exceed $50 million. However, she expects interest rates to be higher this year than last year, due to the tightening credit markets.

This brief was during the county board of commissioners meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building. A more detailed report will follow: [link]