Mayor & Council Members Still Searching on What to Tax

                   
Mayor O'Brien's attempt to tax out of town landlords for four million dollars resulted with 18 Landlords speaking against the proposal at a recent planning & zoning sub-committee meeting. Alderman Michael Trueworhty attempted to raise the motion off the table which failed with a 5-4 vote. The Alderman subsequently issued a statement, which appeared in local newspapers, saying that the council has to come up with alternatives in order to fill the budget financial shortfall.

What the Mayor's office and council members seem to not fathom is the fact that many owners of motor vehicles continually avoid paying their city taxes until they need to renew their registration. The much needed cash that is not collected from the taxpayer, when due, could be collected promptly by allowing the eight constables to perform the job that the citizens elected them to do by serving tax warrants issued by the city's tax collector. The current system of sending these unpaid taxes to a collection agency that lacks the legal authority to take any enforcement action clearly is not working as even many elected officials and city commissioners seem to simply ignore their collection letters. Tax warrants issued to constables for collection grant the constables the legal authority to levy bank accounts, garnish wages, or to levy personal property including vehicles and even real estate in order to satisfy the debt owed to the city. You may recall that when news reports surfaced about New Haven constables seizing vehicles for unpaid taxes, tax delinquents flooded city hall in order to pay their taxes in such a mob that the city was forced to keep city hall open late each evening to accommodate the volume of tax payments. There were several news reports about the lines at the tax office that were stretching out of city hall into the street and even around the block as people paid their taxes to avoid being the next one to have their vehicle seized for unpaid taxes, so clearly the constable system does work.

In addition to motor vehicle taxes, it appears that the city does little if anything to collect delinquent real estate or business personal property taxes beyond placing a lien on the property and waiting for possibly many years for the property to be sold in order to collect the back taxes. These are two other areas that the city might experience improvement in voluntary payments if it were to be made known that constables are going to be actively pursuing these forms of taxes as well. Until then, the tax delinquents will continue to fill the city landfill with those seemingly worthless collection agency notices.

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