Work continues on tax-delinquent parcels

By Kevin O’Brien

Marathon County officials are continuing their yearslong effort to get the owners of tax-delinquent properties to pay what they owe, while also taking legal action to seize some parcels with longstanding debts.

Still, many members of the county board, including chairman Kurt Gibbs, remain frustrated by what they see as inadequate results in recouping the county’s costs from those who fail to pay their back taxes for years. Once a tax bill paid has gone unpaid for 10 years, the county can no longer pursue payment or foreclosure.

“It seems at this point like we have made very little progress in the past three years in taking these properties,” he said at a meeting of the Human Resources, Finance and Property Committee last week. “It continues to balloon, in my opinion, as far as the property taxes we’re having to write off.”

At its Oct. 9 meeting, HRFC members reviewed a 226-page listing of tax-delinquent properties, which includes information on how much each property owner owes and how far back their past-due tax bills go. According to that document, a total of 4,167 tax certificates have been issued for unpaid taxes dating back to 2010, for a total of just under $5 million owed to the county as of Sept. 27, with another $670,177 owed for special assessments.

“How do we move the needle so this tax burden is not being shared by the rest of the taxpayers?” Gibbs wondered.

County administrator Lance Leonhard noted that the list of back taxes is relatively fluid because people are always coming in to pay what they owe. Past-due taxes for about 170 parcels had been paid off just between the Sept. 27 report and the Oct. 9 meeting, he noted.

County treasurer Connie Beyersdorf said the county recently seized 18 parcels with delinquent taxes using the in rem foreclosure process, which allows multiple properties to be foreclosed on in a single court action. She said that will result in over $460,000 in unpaid taxes being written off once the county takes ownership of the properties.

Letters were recently sent out to the owners of 89 other parcels that are being targeted for possible in rem foreclosure, and once tax research is completed, another 150 parcels could be seized as soon as as February, she said. Beyersdorf said her office continues to see more and more people coming in to pay what they owe, including interest and penalities, since the county started ramping up its foreclosure efforts.

Going forward, Beyersdorf said she would like to know what county supervisors want to do about so-called “slivers,” small parcels squeezed in between larger properties, and also land with environmental contamination requiring remediation.

Leonhard said the county should really be concentrating on properties with large amount of back taxes due rather than those that may only accrue $10 or so in new debt every year.

“If we focus on slivers, it’s like stepping over dollars to pick up pennies,” he said.

Beyersdorf confirmed that her office’s top priority are properties with the largest tax bills that are closest to being written off, but she also asked about polluted properties like the former Weisenberger Tie & Lumber Company in Marathon City, which covers three parcels with thousands of unpaid taxes going back to 2010. (The property, which was formerly used to treat railroad ties with creosote, has been declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency).

Supervisor John Robinson, who used to work for the Wisconsin DNR, said state and federal grants are available to remediate so-called “brownfield” sites so the county wouldn’t have to take on that liability.

Budget amendment proposed

A proposed budget amendment submitted by Robinson and supervisor Stacey Morache would essentially add $157,000 to the property tax levy in order to pay short-term staff for economic development purposes – including the redevelopment of foreclosed properties into new housing.

At a special HRFC meeting on Monday, Robinson pointed out that the county recently wrote off $100,000 in past-due taxes and special assessments on properties with debts going back 10 years or longer. He noted that the county has already paid local school districts and municipalities for their share of the unpaid taxes, so the county takes the full hit.

“We’re left holding the outstanding amount,” he said. “If that isn’t paid, we not only lose what would come to the county, but we lose what we’ve paid to the other communities.”

Morache said the county needs to do something proactive about economic development, rather than “just sitting on our hands,” and she believes additional shortterm help is needed to do that.

“Our administrator has a work plan he needs to accomplish and does not have time to play realtor,” she said.

Supervisor Gayle Marshall, however, objected to the idea of adding a new taxpayer- funded staff position before it goes through the normal process of developing a job description and measurable goals. She made a motion to change the amendment so that any money spent on additional staffing would not come from the 2025 tax levy, but from back taxes collected on delinquent properties.

“If this position cannot generate $157,000 of additional revenue, then we should not be supporting it at all,” she said.

Supervisor Scott Poole seconded Marshall’s motion, saying he would like to see more details provided about the position and some discussion among the committees first.

“I’m not inclined to spend additional tax dollars for something that’s ill-defined,” he said.

Ultimately, only Marshall and Poole voted for her motion so it failed, and Robinson’s amendment was approved on a 3-2 vote, with Robinson, Gibbs and supervisor Corey Hart voting in favor. (Supervisors Ann Lemmer and Josh Reynolds were absent).

“There’s a real need to do something with these properties, and I’m glad to see we’re moving forward to help get that done,” Hart said.

Robinson said the HRFC will discuss the proposed amendment again at its next meeting on Oct. 22, and it will continue to be up for debate during the Nov. 7 public hearing.

Other business

■ At its Oct. 9 meeting, the HRFC voted to direct the county administrator to start the tax foreclosure process on 281 Grand Ave. in Schofield, the site of an abandoned trailer park that has been deemed a public health hazard.

■ The committee voted to recommend the sale of county-owned property at 405 S. Eighth Ave. in Wausau to the city’s housing authority for $60,000, on the condition that the former parking lot across from UW-Stevens Point at Wausau be redeveloped into apartment building within 36 months of the sale. The appraised value of the property is $99,000, but Robinson noted that the Wausau Community Development Authority is investing about $40,000 worth of staff time to redevelop the property.

Connie Beyersdorf

John Robinson