Tax Collector to Address Council
At tonight's City Council meeting, Tax Collector Marie Glavan will discuss the city's tax collection rate and also, according to the agenda, "accomplishments and improvements realized in her office since commencement of her tenure."
The agenda-setting session is 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave. The agenda is posted on Councilman Rashid Burney's web site (click here) or may be picked up at City Hall. Copies will also be available at the meeting.
Glavan was named to the post in April 2007, filling the unexpired term of Constance Ludden, who left March 1, 2006. In the interim, the city had a part-time tax collector who was full-time in another city. The unexpired term is up Dec. 31, 2008. A resolution to give Glavan a full term to 2012 was withdrawn at the Sept. 15 council meeting.
During budget talks last year, Glavan said the tax collection rate had dropped from 95 percent to 93.5 percent after a tax lien sale fell through. The tax lien sale was eventually held, but revenues could not be applied to the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007.
The tax collection rate affects the amount the city must hold in reserve for uncollected taxes the following fiscal year, as Plaintalker understands it. The rate had been chronically low through several administrations until the city began holding tax lien sales to recoup the revenues. In a tax lien sale, a buyer pays the city the money owed and then can charge up to 18 percent interest on the debt that the property owner now owes the lienholder. The tax collector is in charge of the tax lien sale.
After several such sales to collect taxes owed, the backlog was reduced to the point where a tax lien sale could no longer produce millions in revenue.
Council members have called for a higher tax rate and Glavan will report on the current situation. Last year, Burney urged Glavan to aim for a 97 percent collection rate.
--Bernice Paglia
The agenda-setting session is 7:30 p.m. in City Hall Library, 515 Watchung Ave. The agenda is posted on Councilman Rashid Burney's web site (click here) or may be picked up at City Hall. Copies will also be available at the meeting.
Glavan was named to the post in April 2007, filling the unexpired term of Constance Ludden, who left March 1, 2006. In the interim, the city had a part-time tax collector who was full-time in another city. The unexpired term is up Dec. 31, 2008. A resolution to give Glavan a full term to 2012 was withdrawn at the Sept. 15 council meeting.
During budget talks last year, Glavan said the tax collection rate had dropped from 95 percent to 93.5 percent after a tax lien sale fell through. The tax lien sale was eventually held, but revenues could not be applied to the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2007.
The tax collection rate affects the amount the city must hold in reserve for uncollected taxes the following fiscal year, as Plaintalker understands it. The rate had been chronically low through several administrations until the city began holding tax lien sales to recoup the revenues. In a tax lien sale, a buyer pays the city the money owed and then can charge up to 18 percent interest on the debt that the property owner now owes the lienholder. The tax collector is in charge of the tax lien sale.
After several such sales to collect taxes owed, the backlog was reduced to the point where a tax lien sale could no longer produce millions in revenue.
Council members have called for a higher tax rate and Glavan will report on the current situation. Last year, Burney urged Glavan to aim for a 97 percent collection rate.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 12:55 AM
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