More than 1,400 mobile home owners in Athens County owe back taxes for their mobile homes. The 232 of those owners who owed more than $1,000 received a letter late last month from ¥Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren warning them that they had 10 days to design a payment plan with the Athens County treasurer's office or they would have an action filed against them in common pleas court.
Since then, many people have called the treasurer's office, and the reactions to the letters have been mixed.
We've gotten a lot of calls
people arranging payments said Sandy Six, who works for Treasurer JaVon Kittle Cooper. The response has been mediocre but we did get a rise out of some people. One angry party was Nicolle Wolf. She arrived at the treasurer's office with $3,000 in a McDonald's bag, $1,000 in $20 bills and the other $2,000 in $1 bills. She was said she was unhappy that she had to give most of her income tax refund to pay delinquent taxes.
For JoAnne Vandyke, the letter was a source of confusion. Vandyke is listed as owing about $7,000 in the treasurer office's files, but when asked, she insisted there had been a mistake.
I don't even own a trailer
Vandyke said.
Others who owe money have filed for bankruptcy, and those who have will not have any action filed against them until the bankruptcy proceedings conclude. We don't harass people during bankruptcy
Cooper said.
Lola Hibbard is 70 years old, and her substantial debt could have been limited if she had applied for Homestead Exemption. Homestead Exemption is a state program that gives a person a tax break on his or her home and the acre of property it is on. If someone does not own property, he or she can still apply for a partial exemption on their mobile home.
To receive a Homestead Exemption, a person must be either more than 65 years old or disabled and have an annual income of less than $25,000 a year. That amount does not include Medicare or the first $5,200 of Social Security or disability.
Those who wish to apply for the exemption will not be able to use it to decrease their delinquent taxes, even if they were eligible for the program when the taxes accumulated, Athens County Auditor Jill Thompson.
We can't go back and give you Homestead Exemption
she said. We don't adjust for delinquent taxes.
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