COUNTY TO SELL PROPERTIES FOR TAXES

At one time, an 80-acre farm sold for 70 cents an acre on the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse steps.

In another instance, a modern, two-bedroom home valued at more than $35,000 sold for $2,500.

These two instances aren't the norm, but there are a lot of similar ones involving sales to settle delinquent property tax bills.

A lot of Cape Girardeau County property may go on the auction block at the south door of the County Courthouse at Jackson late next month. A total of 171 parcels of property are on the latest delinquent land tax sale list, which appeared in two pages of the Southeast Missourian on Monday.

The properties listed are all in Cape Girardeau County and represent several thousand dollars in taxes, ranging from as little as $15.46 to more than $7,000.

The property will be offered for sale by the county collector's office on the fourth Monday in August, which is Aug. 28, starting at 10 a.m.

The sale will continue each day until all the property has been put up for sale.

"Some people will come in and pay their taxes before the sale," said a spokesman in the collector's office.

One of the tax bills dates to 1985. The property has been placed on the auction block numerous times with no takers. At stake for the county is about $540.

A number of parcels have been on the tax books from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. A couple of these have passed the $2,000 mark in tax liability.

State law allows the county collector to request that a trustee be appointed by the Cape Girardeau County Commission to settle some of the accounts. County Collector Diane Diebold could not be contacted to comment Monday.

Benny C. Odom, Cass County collector and past president of the Missouri Collectors Association, uses a trustee, who has settled a number of delinquent cases in Cass County.

After placing property on the auction list three or four times, it is turned over to the trustee for action.

"He can negotiate with people who may be interested in the property," said a Cass County spokesperson. "Sometimes the property may be sold for the tax amount," which in many cases may be the opening bid.

Property owners can be placed on the delinquent tax list after only two years.

The list will run in the newspaper three times. The list includes the names of the property owners, lots and, or land descriptions, and amounts of taxes, penalties and interest.

Property owners paying their taxes will be excluded from the next two lists.