Yield on tax drops by $1M

By Ed Runyan

Economic conditions will keep delinquencies on property taxes high for a while, the treasurer said.

WARREN — Trumbull County real estate tax collections have dropped about $1 million compared to this time last year, and could result in some drop-off in distributions to schools and governments over the next year.

Sam Lamancusa, county treasurer, says the county had about $10 million in delinquent property taxes at this time last year, which put Trumbull County at a little below the state average of 9 percent of its taxes being delinquent.

This year, the county has $11 million in delinquencies, which places it closer to the state average, Lamancusa said, noting that the delinquency rate across the state appears to be on the rise due to the nation’s economic downturn over the past year.

Adrian Biviano, county auditor, says a reduction of $1 million in property tax revenue would result in about $750,000 less going to the 27 public school districts in the county — or an average of about $29,000 less for each district.

About 75 percent of property tax revenue goes to the school districts, with the rest going to government bodies such as the cities, townships, villages and county.

Biviano and Lamancusa said delinquencies are likely to affect Warren the most because it is the largest city in the county and has the largest amount of delinquencies.

Lamancusa said the likelihood of receiving $1 million less in property taxes this year is likely to be related to job losses in the county, because the county’s delinquency rate has held fairly steady at about $10 million for this time of year for about the past 10 years.

“My fear is that we’re not at the end yet of the recession/depression and we will be having this same conversation this time next year,” Lamancusa said.

The treasurer’s office is sending out third notices to delinquent taxpayers over the next couple weeks, and around $3 million usually comes in through that process, Lamancusa said. He expects similar results this year. The end of the third billing period occurs at the end of October.

But because there are more delinquencies this year than most, this will be the largest third billing in the past 10 years, and there will be an increase in sheriff sales resulting from unpaid property taxes, Lamancusa said.

Lamancusa reminds taxpayers that they should contact his office if they are having trouble paying their property taxes so that he can offer whatever assistance is available.

“I want to work with them,” Lamancusa said.

runyan@vindy.com