Henderson County hears delinquent tax collections report, authorizes resale of four bid‑in‑trust properties

Henderson County Commissioners on Monday heard a delinquent tax collections briefing from MBVA (Viselka, Bragg & Allen) and approved a resolution to resell four properties that failed to meet minimum bids at prior tax sales.

MBVA representative Miss Gold told the court the county’s tax collections exceeded budget for the 2024 fiscal year, reporting ‘‘we collected 101.46%’’ and that the overage put ‘‘an additional $600,000’’ into the county budget. She presented three views of collections — fiscal‑year totals, cumulative base collections and delinquent collections by tax year — and said the county’s total outstanding delinquent balance was $3,000,465.56.

The report included delinquent collection rates by tax year: roughly 45% collected in the first six months after tax year 2024 was turned over to collection, 66.51% for 2023 over 18 months, 75.1% for 2022 over 30 months and 78.73% for 2021 over a longer span. MBVA staff said about $1.7 million of the outstanding balance was currently categorized as temporarily uncollectible (bankruptcies, deferrals, unknown addresses), and estimated roughly $1.1 million of that category (bankruptcies and tax deferrals) could become collectible later.

As part of the presentation, MBVA asked the court to authorize resale (for the June sale) of four bid‑in‑trust parcels that did not receive minimum bids on first offering. Properties included parcels in Wildwood Subdivision and Cherokee Shores (some with mobile homes) with original minimum bids ranging from roughly $7,000 to $13,920; individual judgment totals and adjudged values were listed in the briefing. The representative said the office will calculate minimum bids for resale based on adjudged value, taxes owed and property condition and may offer ‘‘no minimum’’ in the resolution to allow online resale flexibility.

Commissioners discussed collection thresholds (MBVA indicated $1,000 is a common threshold before filing suit), the effect of homestead deferrals and bankruptcy on collectability, and the role of school district suits in earlier collections. After discussion, Commissioner Tully moved and Commissioners Ricksen and others seconded the judge’s authorization to sign the resolution; the motion passed unanimously.

The court asked MBVA to continue tracking bankruptcies and tax‑deferral cases and to return with updated figures as collection work proceeds. The resolution authorizing resale of the four bid‑in‑trust properties was approved with the county judge’s authorization to sign.

The court also thanked MBVA staff members Michelle Snyder and Kathy Brown for their work on daily outreach to taxpayers and handling collections operations.

The collections presentation began at SEG 104 and the resale resolution concluded at SEG 766.