County instructs in tax lien sales

YOUNGSTOWN -- A four-member team from the Stark County treasurer's and prosecutor's offices visited to learn details of conducting negotiated tax lien sales to return abandoned real estate to productive use.
"We discussed it on the way home and had a clearer understanding of what we have to do before the sale," said Glenn Owens, chief administrator of the Stark County Treasurer's Office after the team visited the Mahoning County Treasurer's Office Monday.
Stark County hopes to sell tax liens on about 1,500 abandoned properties in its first sale in November, Owens said. "We're doing it on a smaller scale," than Mahoning County, he said, noting that Stark County doesn't have as much abandoned tax-delinquent property as Mahoning County.
Most of the abandoned, tax-delinquent property Stark County would like to return to productive use is in Canton and Alliance, and some of it is in Massillon, he added.
A five-member team from the Lucas County treasurer's office visited the office of Mahoning County Treasurer John B. Reardon July 6 to learn about tax lien sales. By law, only Ohio's 12 most populous counties can conduct tax lien sales.
Reardon's office has conducted three negotiated tax lien sales in recent years, which he said have collected tens of millions of dollars in delinquent real estate taxes, most of which go to schools, and cleared titles on long-abandoned properties that can be used productively.