NEW CITY – Rockland County has $2.9 million owed by non-residential property owners and since County Executive Edwin Day began an expedited enforcement campaign last spring, it has collected $2.4 million. That’s 81 percent of the delinquent taxes.
Previously the county waited three years before starting foreclosure proceedings on commercial and vacant land. The amounts are for all taxes owed including, county, town, village, and school because the county is responsible for paying all unpaid taxes, Day noted.
“For every dollar that a deadbeat does not pay, is a dollar that somebody has to make up who is an honest citizen in the county,” he said. “So, by doing this, we are forcing those who are essentially getting over for a couple of years and they never paid these taxes. We are stopping the subsidizing of those people by the good, honest taxpayers.”
The county had waited three years before starting to foreclose on the commercial and vacant parcels. It is now waiting only two years to go after those property owners who are behind on their taxes.
