Jan 21, 2005 By Paul Sunyak 5 min read

State law stipulates that Fayette County gets a 5 percent commission on all delinquent school district and municipal taxes it collects, as reimbursement for the cost of running the Tax Claim Bureau that performs that work. When the Uniontown Area School District board voted Tuesday night to lower its tax collector commission rate from 3 percent to 2 percent for the next four years, business manager Floyd Geho broached the topic of the county’s fiscal cut for collecting delinquent school taxes.

Although the county commissioners earlier voted to scrap their own 3.5 percent commission rate for tax collectors, putting in its place a flat and cost-saving $1.50 fee per tax bill, Geho zeroed in on the fact that the 5 percent county commission on delinquent collections stayed in place.

“Any check that they turn in to us (for collecting delinquent school taxes), they take 5 percent off the top,” said Geho on Thursday. “It’s basically counterproductive, because we’re taking money away from the tax collectors (at the school district level) … but the county, even though they’ve reduced the amount of money they’re paying the tax collectors, they’re still (taking) 5 percent on all the delinquents.”

Geho said that in 2004, the Uniontown Area School District had $10.11 million in potential real estate and per capital tax collections, of which $1.23 million was turned over to the Fayette County

Tax Claim Bureau as delinquent.

Those numbers mean that those collecting taxes for the school district – including township tax collectors and the Uniontown City treasurer, who collects school taxes for those living in the city – didn’t come up with 12.1 percent of what was billed.

That’s not unusual, as no taxing body in the county regularly collects 100 percent of what is billed. The county budget, for example, is predicated on an 85 percent real estate tax collection rate; Geho said that the Uniontown school district usually gets a somewhat higher 89 percent to 91 percent of what is billed.

But county Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink, county manager Warren Hughes and Tax Claim Bureau Director Donna J. Yauger counter Geho’s portrayal of the system. They start by pointing to the state Real Estate Tax Sale Law, which says “the county shall receive and retain” 5 percent of all money collected “in order to reimburse the county for the actual costs and expenses of operating” the Tax Claim Bureau.

Remember the aforementioned $1.23 million in 2004 delinquent taxes that Uniontown school district turned over to the county Tax Claim Bureau? State law requires that county office to collect delinquent taxes for all school districts and municipalities – but none of them is required to contribute any money to that collection effort.

Geho said that in 2004, the Tax Claim Bureau forwarded to his school district approximately $800,000 that Yauger’s office collected in prior-year delinquent taxes. But the school district paid nothing for that effort, except the 5 percent that the county took off the top.

Hughes said that the county’s 5 percent cut of delinquent tax collections amounted to $412,231 in 2004, money used primarily to fund the Tax Claim Bureau and its nearly $300,000 annual budget. He, Zimmerlink and Yauger said that additional work must be done in the Tax Assessment Office, whose assessors must individually post between 3,000 and 5,000 properties for the yearly Upset Tax Sale that occurs each fall. They said the county controller, sheriff and treasurer offices also figure into the cost mix.

“The controller prepares the (school district) check and it is sent by the treasurer,” said Hughes. “That (delinquent tax) dollar moves so many places before it leaves here that it’s unbelievable.”

Yauger said the sheriff gets involved in tracking down property owners and lien holders who live outside the county, as state law requires them to be notified when a property is slated for sale for nonpayment of taxes.

Yauger added that each of the property owners must be notified by mail at least three times before a property can be sold – mailings that cost $5, $8 and 87 cents.

When the total costs are added up, Zimmerlink said she doubts that the county breaks even on its cost of collecting delinquent school district and municipal taxes. “I would venture to say, based on the numbers that we get, that if anything we are not collecting enough,” said Zimmerlink. “We are probably in the hole (doing this).”

Geho also said that a county change implemented about five years ago, which now requires school districts and tax collectors to turn over their delinquent tax bills by Jan. 15 instead of in April, has driven up the aggregate delinquent tax amount.

Because school district tax bills are mailed out in August, Geho said tax collectors only have four months to collect taxes before those bills end up in county hands as delinquent. He said reverting to the April deadline would give tax collectors three more months to get the job done.

But Yauger, who has headed the Tax Claim Bureau for many years, said the deadline change did not affect delinquent taxes much. “We had as many (late) returns then as we do now,” said Yauger.