ORANGE — Collector Shana Smith recently addressed the Selectboard to update members on the extent of tax delinquency in Orange, which is up from this time last year, and discuss the avenues available to recover unpaid taxes while working within the constraints of the budget allocated for the Collector’s Office.
She explained that Town Hall is awaiting $2.5 million in delinquent taxes, though her office bills out at least $16.5 million.
“I know it sounds like a lot, but we’re actually in really good shape,” Smith told Selectboard members on April 15. “This past year alone — from [July 1] up until today, my assistant and I have recovered $125,942.31 in just personal property. For real estate, we’ve collected $198,915.71 in … delinquent taxes.”
Smith explained she recently sent out 1,700 demands about a week and a half after vehicle excise taxes were due. She said there are slightly more than 8,000 vehicles in Orange, which means the vehicle excise tax collection rate is 78%.
She said the town is in the midst of the personal property and real estate billing cycle, which ends on May 4. The personal property tax collection rate is currently 79%, while the real estate collection rate sits at 74%.
“Last year at this time, we saw collection rates a little bit higher than what they are right now,” Smith advised the Selectboard. “These numbers do need to come up. The delinquency that we’re seeing this year is greater than I did see last year — those numbers did intimidate us a little bit.”
Water tax collection is currently at 82%, while wastewater is at 81%
“Those ones are pretty consistently in the 80s,” she noted.
Smith said tax takings, a mechanism for Massachusetts cities and towns to secure a lien for unpaid property taxes and other municipal charges against property, are difficult and expensive. Instead, she sends out “notice after notice.”
“Every single property that I do a tax taking on, I have to pay a recording fee of $105 to the [state] Registry of Deeds. That doesn’t even include what I have to pay now — a constable to go ‘tag’ the property, what we have to pay for advertising,” she explained.
Smith said she and Assistant Collector Jessica Omundsen have, since the end of March, reduced the number of delinquent personal properties from 68 to 64.
“But if you do the math, my budget line for tax titles, I only get $7,000 a year. So if I take 64 properties, you’re already looking at $6,720. That doesn’t even include a constable,” she explained. “So what that is then going to entail is I then have to go out personally to tag every single one of these properties, and I’m not doing that myself.”
Smith said she sometimes asks the police chief to join her for safety reasons, but his time and resources are also limited. According to Smith, a constable costs $25 per property.
“We just don’t have the funding for it,” she said.
Smith’s hours were also discussed, as she said she is paid for 35 but works “well over 40.”
Selectboard member Kelli Gervais said a lot of people feel overworked and overwhelmed.
“It’s kind of what it is now, right?” she said.
She also asked Smith if she could fit some of the property visits into her downtime.
“What’s downtime?” Smith replied with a laugh, adding that she even works after her child goes to bed.
“Unpaid labor is not a cool thing. I’m just putting that right on record,” Selectboard Chair Julie Davis chimed in. “I disagree 100% with unpaid labor.”
Davis respectfully requested that Smith note the hours she works at home on top of the 35 hours per week that she is paid for.
