$822,000.00 Back Taxes
| The county Trustee recently announced that she was
about to turn over for collections the largest amount of delinquent
property taxes the county has ever had, over $822,000.00 and that's just
for 2008. Add interest and penalties to that and you've got more than a
million dollars of unpaid taxes. It's a pretty safe bet that if the 08
taxes aren't paid, 09's aren't either so you can about double that
figure.
It's expected that in such bad economic times, delinquent taxes would be higher and while there are a number of individuals on the list the vast majority of the back taxes are owed by some big developers. Want to know who? According to tax records as of 4/14, the biggest holder of unpaid property taxes is Blount County developer, Mike Ross. Ross who developed both Rarity Bay and more recently Rarity Pointe owes about $325,000.00 for 2008 and more than $370,000.00 for 2009. It was also reported in the Roane County News last week that Ross owes more than a half million dollars in back taxes in Roane County related to his Rarity Ridge development in that county. Ross is not the only big developer who is behind on their property taxes. According to the delinquent tax records there are several large developers that owe tens of thousands in back taxes. The list is pretty long but here are some of the biggest ones. Jackson Crossing Dev. LLC And dare I say it, one of the county mayoral candidates who has touted his development success and proven leadership has more than $94,000.00 in unpaid 2008 and 2009 taxes. But I digress. The moral of the story, when folks tell us how development is the answer to our financial problems, that may not always be the case. There is enough money in unpaid property taxes to provide all county and school employees raises............. for two years. |
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4/19/10