By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND — While Barton County would love to see every landowner pay their property taxes yearly, there are always a number of owners that get behind. After three years of not paying property taxes, a residential house gets listed on the county’s tax sale and auctioned off to the highest bidder.
There were
158 notices delivered to owners this year notifying them that they have until
October to pay their late taxes.
Barton County Commissioner Jennifer Schartz said the county only takes the money owed to them
in taxes and fees. The rest of the money is handled by the court to potentially
give back to the owner or lienholder.
"It's never the county's intent to sell a house out from under
somebody," said Schartz. "We make every concession we can. All we want
is for people to pay their fair share of taxes. We surely don't want to
put anyone out on the street. We have enough safeguards to make sure
that doesn't happen."
As the tax sale deadline gets closer, many owners pay the taxes they
owe.
Barton County Counselor Patrick Hoffman estimated there will be 50 or
fewer properties in the tax sale by the time the Oct. 11 date rolls
around.
With very few houses on the market at the moment, Hoffman did express the
advantage of possibly getting 50 houses in the hands of people that actually
want the property.
"The main goal is to get the taxes collected," said Hoffman. "If the
owner doesn't want it or maintain it, we'd love someone else to buy it
to put it to productive use and add valuation. We all know there is a
housing crisis, so we'd love for these properties to get to somebody
that wants to live there."
Barton County Treasurer Jim Jordan said a $100,000 home that is three years
late on property taxes will pay between $2,000 and $3,000 in back taxes and
fees.