The Porter County
Board of Commissioners will soon hold a Commissioners’ sale of properties
delinquent in the payment of property taxes.
County Auditor
Vicki Urbanik received the Board’s approval for a contract for SRI, the same
company the county has used in past years, to handle the sale. The Board
also approved a resolution declaring its intent to hold the sale.
Urbanik said that
the county has fewer parcels with less owed in overdue taxes to contend with
than it did in 2016. In the last sale, 377 parcels were offered and 119
sold. 351 parcels will be up for sale this year, a number of which have been
listed at county certificate sales or tax sales two or three times without
selling.
Urbanik says SRI
increased its fee from 7 percent to 15 percent this year. Commissioner
President Jeff Good, R-Center, expressed surprise that SRI doubled their
rate. Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, for his part, was concerned about
passing on the costs of higher fees to people who want to purchase and
upgrade delinquent properties, many of which become eyesores.
Urbanik assured
that the total fee SRI collects will increase only slightly-- her analysis
is based on past performance and the amount of due taxes on the properties
for sale. Last year, SRI got a fee of $13,216. She calculates that this year
it will get $13,421 from the sales.
Ordinances
In other business,
the Board approved on second reading ordinance 16-03, which allows the
Commissioners to appoint designees to sit for them on the Stormwater
Advisory Board.
The Board also
performed first readings of two new ordinances proposed by Porter County
Emergency Management Director Lance Bella. One ordinance would establish a
non-reverting fund for depositing charitable donations to EMA. The second
ordinance would establish a non-reverting fund for the county to use as the
fiduciary agent of equipment and supplies used by the state’s emergency
management task force in its first district. District one consists of Lake,
Porter, LaPorte, Newton, and Jasper counties.
No one spoke for or
against either ordinance. Both were approved on first reading with second
reading expected March 13.
Special meeting
The Commissioners
announced they will hold a special meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, due
to surplus business. It will be held in Suite 205 of the Porter County
Administration Center, 155 Indiana Ave. in Valparaiso.