Tuesday was one of our favorite issues of The Daily Dispatch of the year: the annual advertisement of tax liens on businesses and homeowners who didn’t pay the previous year’s property taxes.
We think (or hope) this year’s 6.5-page list was a little shorter in the past, reflecting more success by Tax Administrator Sam Jones at collecting taxes. But there was still plenty of room for some familiar names.
For example, the various businesses of Creative Real Estate’s Donald Gupton are hard to miss. Through CRE Properties, Donald W. Gupton Inc. and M&G Properties, the developer of mobile home parks is delinquent on the 2004 taxes on 61 properties for a total of $28,249.49.
Another developer who owes taxes through multiple business names and limited liability corporations is Kenneth Stevenson, whose interests include K&G Holdings, Pristine Housing and Elite Housing. He is listed as owing $9,884.64 on 26 properties. In addition, $315.55 in taxes are outstanding on a property K&G Holdings bought. And the taxes went unpaid on 21 properties Stevenson sold — 20 of them to companies he operates. Those tax bills total $7,415.61.
Harriet & Henderson Yarns, which took great pride in getting current on its taxes in early 2004 during its bankruptcy case, has fallen behind again as the case has dragged on. Vance County reports being owed $1,288.83 on nine properties, not counting $543.15 that apparently went unpaid when the defunct textile company sold a couple of properties to Five Star Properties & Rentals.
While any unpaid tax bills affect all property owners in the county by increasing our share of the bill for city and county taxes, the failure to pay on time takes on added significance for elected officials. There’s not much most of us can do to punish Gupton for not paying his taxes, for instance, but we have a voice in whether elected officials get to keep their part-time jobs.
We should note that we don’t get any pleasure out of publicizing public officials’ private financial problems, but we think the people who set our tax rates and spend our money should be expected to pay their fare share. When they don’t, for whatever reason, voters should know.
The elected officials on the list this year have been there before. In all, four local elected officials owe nearly $20,000 in overdue 2004 property taxes in Vance County.
From the Henderson City Council, Lonnie Davis and his wife are behind on $1,655.50 in real estate taxes, and Bernard Alston and his wife are delinquent on $5,610.47. The Alston bill includes his home and his law office, which, as of the end of last week, was scheduled for a foreclosure auction this Friday at the Vance County Courthouse.
Davis and Alston have been late with their taxes before but eventually paid the bills. Two years ago, during the last municipal election year, Davis paid off the tax debt within days of the publication of the lien list, and Alston promptly took care of his bill.
That’s not the case with Board of Education member Emeron Cash and his wife, Patricia. Cash is a fixture on the tax lien list but continues to win re-election to the school board. This year the Cashes owe $2,238.67 on four properties; that total excludes delinquent taxes from years before 2004.
The Vance Board of Commissioners also has a member who’s behind on his county taxes, Eddie Wright. He and wife Maresa owe $3,970.58 in 2004 taxes. Wright has gone through personal bankruptcy and saw the church he leads as president and pastor sold at a foreclosure auction Tuesday.