MONROEVILLE, Pa. — Amid a tax crackdown, Gateway School District officials told Channel 11 News they plan to publish the names of delinquent taxpayers in local newspapers in an effort to get them to pay up.
“We are looking to publish in the paper everyone who is delinquent in taxes, who is not trying to make a good faith effort to pay the taxes,” district board president Shad Stubenport said.
Stubenport said he isn’t looking to embarrass delinquent taxpayers, but wants them to pay about $4 million in collectable taxes.
Delinquent home and businesses owners would normally receive a letter stating what they owe, but now the board is hoping the approach of publishing the names of those delinquent who are not making an effort to pay will carry more weight.
“We're really trying to just put some teeth behind it in saying, ‘Hey, you owe us this money. We would like it. If not, here are the consequences that will come,’” Stubenport said.
Under the plan, anyone who is currently on a payment plan will not have his or her name published, anyone not making a good faith effort to pay will have his or her name published and anyone in the top five who owe the most in taxes could be taken to a sheriff’s sale unless placed on a payment plan.
‘We would take them to the court, and they could actually sell the property. So with the top five, we're really looking at businesses in Monroeville. Most of those properties are still running, still in operation,” Stubenport said.
While the number is in the millions, Stubenbort said collecting even a fraction of the taxes owed would make a huge a difference.
“The way I look at it is if we can collect 10 percent, that's $400,000. When we're equating that to a budget in the school, that's four teachers at the Gateway School District,” he said.
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