MAHONING COUNTY Amendment will save millions in tax lien sales

The amendment eliminatesa costly tax search for delinquent properties.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
and BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- An amendment passed by the state Legislature will result in a savings of about $3 million for Mahoning County's taxing districts when the county moves ahead with its first negotiated tax lien certificate sale in December.
The amendment, attached to a state Senate bill after a successful lobbying effort by state Rep. Sylvester D. Patton Jr., will no longer require a title search by the county recorder's office for every delinquent property that is to be sold. The searches cost about $125 to $175 each.
The bill goes to Gov. Bob Taft for his approval.
The county treasurer's office is planning a December sale of liens on about 20,000 to 23,000 properties, most of them in Youngstown, owned by people who are delinquent with the payment of their property taxes, said Lisa Antonini, the office's administrative assistant.
To highest bidder
The county will sell the parcels' liens in bulk to the highest bidder, who then will collect the delinquent tax amount from the property owners, plus 18 percent interest. If the money isn't paid within a year, the buyer can foreclose on the property to recover the investment.
This is the first time the county will sell liens on properties for less than the taxes owed. Mahoning is the only county besides Cuyahoga to do this in Ohio.
"Some money is better than no money at all," Antonini said, adding that a number of properties involved in the sale have tax debts higher than the value of the land.
The county expects to sell the liens for about $8 million, Antonini said. But the title search would have reduced that amount by about $3 million because the highest bidder would pass that cost on to the county, she said.
Patton, of Youngstown, D-60th, successfully lobbied Republican state leaders to include this law change in a tax bill.
"You want to be as productive as you can be and to do so, you've got to play politics sometimes," said Patton, one of the few House Democrats to vote in favor of the state budget, thus enabling its passage.
skolnick@vindy.com bjackson@vindy.com