*Local News
SB County lists property-tax delinquents in newspaper ad
Posted: Sep 2, 2010 9:33 PM by Nancy Chen
Updated: Sep 2, 2010 9:52 PM
Jolene Anderson, Kathy Odell, Charles Anderson--and Abel Maldonado?
These people have three things in common: they live in Santa Barbara County; they have yet to pay their property taxes; and their names made it into the newspaper.
It's fame and shame for about a thousand property owners who haven't paid their property taxes.
The Santa Barbara County treasurer-tax collector put out a full-page ad in today's edition of the Santa Barbara News-Press.
The ad lists the tax delinquents, who owe a total of nearly nine million dollars.
"It does get results," said Bernice James, the Santa Barbara County Treasurer-Tax Collector. "It helps us collect, and that's my job."
She's the one who took out the ad listing everyone in the county who's been delinquent on their property taxes for a year now.
Some say she's humiliating the people on the list and that it's an invasion of privacy.
"People should pay their taxes, but I don't know if this is really necessary," said Elyse Hart, a Goleta resident.
James says she's doing a favor.
"I think it was considered a public service to notify people and give them a notice before we go and try to sell their property," she said.
The state is allowed to sell property after the owner doesn't pay taxes on it for five years.
Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado says it's not him on this list but another Abel Maldonado.
There will be three ads in total listing individuals, trusts, banks and other property owners.
The ads cost seven thousand dollars.
James expects to collect about five or six million dollars after running them.
This wasn't the first contact the county has had with the delinquent taxpayers; it sent letters to them in June.
The county wants to emphasize that people can set up payment plans to pay off their taxes if they need to.
For Hart, there's just one solution.
"I wouldn't want my name on there," she said. "Then again, I'll just pay my taxes."
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