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Clare County treasurer clarifies tax-sale numbers, says county evaluating move from BS&A to cloud systems
Summary
County Treasurer Jenny reported Clare County foreclosed on 50 parcels (0.137% of roughly 37,000 taxable parcels), most of which were vacant or involved deceased owners, and said the county is researching alternatives to its current BS&A dot‑net tax software and will issue requests for proposals for cloud and other options.
County Treasurer Jenny (last name not given in transcript) told the Clare County Board of Commissioners that statements in a recent letter to the editor prompted questions in her office and from residents, and she provided a breakdown of the county's 2025 tax foreclosures and an update on the county's tax/financial software review.
Jenny said Clare County foreclosed on 50 parcels out of approximately 37,000 taxable parcels, or roughly 0.137% of parcels. Of the 50 parcels: 25 were vacant lots, roughly 25 were owned by deceased owners, 43 were not homesteads and seven were homesteads (five of those homesteads belonged to deceased owners). Two parcels were owner‑occupied at the time of foreclosure; the owners filed claims and are expected to receive any surplus proceeds after the tax sale. Jenny said the county has received 10 surplus‑sale claims to date.
She emphasized the foreclosures were not 50 families evicted; the county said staff had worked with taxpayers and that many foreclosure parcels were vacant or involved deceased owners. She offered to provide commissioners a township-by-township breakdown of the foreclosures and said she would circulate that data to the board.
On software and systems, Jenny said Clare County originally migrated from Manatron to BS&A (referred to in the record as BS&A, sometimes misrendered in the transcript). The county currently uses the BS&A dot‑net (on‑premises) version for tax processing and pays an annual maintenance fee (Jenny cited about $38,000 per year). She told commissioners BS&A has developed a cloud product, but many counties are still waiting to be scheduled for migration; Clare County could not be migrated immediately and the vendor's queue meant a customer might not transition until 2027. The treasurer said county staff will issue requests for proposals and evaluate cloud and other vendor options before deciding whether to move; she said the county has time to research and will not rush a conversion.
Jenny also noted two specific functional gaps of concern in the vendor's cloud offering: a drain‑assessment module used locally and an animal‑licensing module many counties use are not yet available in the cloud product she reviewed. She said the county is researching alternatives for those functions and assessing integration options.
Separately, Jenny reminded the board the county's public online tax auction is scheduled for Friday the 22nd (online-only) and encouraged commissioners to share accurate foreclosure statistics with constituents.
Ending: The treasurer said staff will distribute a township-level breakdown of the foreclosure parcels and will return to the board with recommendations and RFP results if a migration away from the county's current tax software becomes appropriate.
