Local news story courtesy
of:
CAO and Chief Financial Officer, David Free, says in his time with the municipality, tax payments in arrears went from 1.9 million dollars in March 2005, down to under 500-thousand this month.
Free says the original 340 or so oustanding tax accounts came from mainly residents, but also a few businesses across the municipality.
Free says that number is now down to 40, and of those, the larger accounts should be in by the end of the year.
Free says the municipality has only had to make one property seizure to pay off arrears.
And there's only one law suit over an outstanding account, with Scott Clay Products.
Free says previous administrations told SCP they would go easy on tax payments, but that never meant a "tax free holiday."
Free says some of the accounts in arrears go back as far as 2002.
Free says it's unusual for a municipality to have such a mass of tax arrears, adding the more taxes go unpaid, the more you have to borrow from the banks.
Free says someone just wasn't paying attention to the situation.
But Free says now that the municipality is paying attention, there is about 1.5 million dollars from a working capital reserve that can now be spent.