By Holly Crocco
The county is beginning to chip away at more than $30 million worth of foreclosed properties that have not been generating taxes for more than a decade, with a recent auction of about 150 properties that went into foreclosure in 2014-15 generating $1.9 million in sales and $252,000 in due taxes.
According to Putnam County Commissioner of Finance Michael Lewis, while the pandemic and the resulting moratorium on foreclosures didn’t help the county in getting properties back on the tax rolls, Putnam was already about three to four years behind the ball before then.
“We are, or hopefully were, one of the worst counites in the state when it comes to filing tax liens,” he said at the County Legislature’s July 23 Physical Services Committee meeting. He noted that the county has about $30 million worth of properties on its “balance sheet.”
However, since coming on board as the new finance commissioner this year, Lewis has worked to get these properties back on the tax rolls, with properties that were foreclosed in 2015, 2016, 2017 and beyond all on deck now that the 2014-15 properties are off the county’s hands.
“We are catching up,” he said, adding that that July 10 auction was “a very successful start.”
A total of 161 properties with a combined deed amount of just over $4 million were up for auction. Fourteen were not bid on.
From the 147 properties that were purchased, 18 sold for a profit, totaling $1.9 million.
The auction company gets 7 percent of the purchase price, according to Lewis.
“The goal, from our perspective, is we want to get these properties back on the tax roll,” he said. “If these properties were with other tax owners as of Jan. 1, 2024, we would have had $7 million of assessed value back on the tax roll.”
As such, the county would have collected $180,000 in school taxes and $72,000 in county taxes this year – as it will next year.
Legislator Greg Ellner, R-Carmel, said he’s happy the county is finally getting a handle on all these foreclosed properties.
“By disposing of these properties, we are relieving a tax burden to Putnam County of $252,000, approximately,” he said.
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