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County tax sale long and difficult By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer  | Photo by Sue Watson
Looking to bid
Ronnie Jones (front), Paul Calame (back) and others participate in the recent Marshall County tax sale. |
The
toughest responsibility she has as tax collector is the yearly tax sale
held the last Monday in August, Betty Byrd said. This year it took two
days to sell the delinquent property taxes owed for 2009. That’s because of so many overbids, bringing in an additional $71,760 to the general county fund. “Properties
were overbid all the way to the last parcel,” Byrd said. “It took two
full days to conduct the sale. That is the longest sale we have ever
had. This has been the largest, longest, and most difficult tax sale I
ever remember.” In past years the tax sale has
taken one day, but according to the law, it must resume the Tuesday
following the tax sale day and continue until taxes on all parcels are
sold. The overbidding this year raised extra
money and more money than last year, which brought in $67,000 in
overbidding for 2008 taxes that were delinquent, Byrd said. In
a round-robin bid process, the bid order travels around the room where
a person can place a bid when it becomes their turn or they can pass.
In overbidding, a person can bid over the tax amount after the person
gets a fair chance to bid on a parcel or pass. Once an overbid is made,
others may continue to bid until no one raises the last bid. One parcel
with $35,000 owed in taxes was overbid by $3,000, Byrd said. Marshall
County has 23,671 parcels on the real property tax roll and the tax on
2,335 of those parcels were sold last week, she said. “That’s 234 more than last year,” Byrd said. The
tax sale brought in $1,442,861.14 in taxes collected, plus the extra
$71,760 in overbids. Last year $1,398,815.52 in taxes were collected at
sale.  | Photo by Sue Watson
Conducting the sale
Tax collector Betty Byrd (left) and Rosalyn DeBerry conduct the recent tax sale. |
Byrd thinks the stagnant economy may have
affected individual’s ability to pay 2009 property taxes, based also on
the fewer number of buyers showing up this year. “I
guess the slowing economy has finally hit property owners,” she said.
“Last year we had 135 buyers and this year we had 122 buyers. It was a
fight to the finish.” Now that all real property
taxes have been collected for the 2009 year, the county brought in
$9,700,948, the three municipalities took in $948,000, and $5.2
million was taken in for the two school districts, for a total of about
$16 million, Byrd said. “It is hard to see
property owners struggling to pay taxes and not be able to make
deadline,” she said. “The property owner has two years in which to
redeem the property before it can be lost. Tax liens can be redeemed at
the chancery clerk’s office beginning September 13.” Byrd praised and thanked her staff for their hard work and dedication “during this very stressful time.” “I’d
also like to thank Marshall County Sheriff’s Deputy Captain David Cook
for helping me keep order and for his help refereeing,” Byrd said.
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