PROPERTY OWNERS PAY UP TO AVOID COURTHOUSE-STEPS SALE

Developer Larry McCulley is paying thousands of dollars in delinquent property taxes so his real estate won't be sold by the Cape Girardeau County collector on the courthouse steps next month.

McCulley's not alone. Most property owners pay up once their land gets on the county's sale list, said Collector Diane Diebold.

On July 16, her office listed 165 properties for sale. By Monday, the list had been shortened to 138 parcels as delinquent taxpayers paid up. Delinquent taxpayers are notified of the impending sale by certified mail.

The county collector's office puts properties up for sale when there are two or more years of taxes owed. Most of the listed real estate this year is saddled with delinquent taxes for 1999 and 2000, although some date back to 1984.

McCulley owed $18,619 in property taxes, interest and penalties on 19 tracts of land in Red Oak Estates in Cape Girardeau and seven other parcels in mid-July.

By Monday, McCulley had paid back taxes on some of his real estate. He intends to pay the rest before the collector's sale, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Aug. 27.

McCulley says he isn't trying to dodge taxes. As a developer, McCulley says he owns a lot of land, and holding off paying property taxes is "just managing" his cash flow.

"Land will appreciate, but it doesn't give you a cash return while you are holding it," he said.

McCulley said he doesn't have a big staff to take care of all the paperwork associated with owning and developing land. "I am covered up. I am building some apartments. I don't have time to take care of all the details," he said.

By the date of the annual sale, Diebold expects only about 60 tracts of land will be available. Many of them are small, vacant patches of ground. Many have liens against them that total more than the land is worth, she said.

As a result, only a handful of parcels sell. Last year, about eight tracts were sold, Diebold said. Fewer still actually changed hands.

"Over half of them will get redeemed," Diebold said.

Under Missouri law, land sold at the collector's sale can be redeemed by the tax-owing owner within two years after the sale. The owner must pay the taxes plus interest and penalties to the person who bought the property at the collector's sale.

If that doesn't occur within two years, the buyer receives a collector's deed for the property. Even then, a buyer may have to go to court to get clear title to the land, Diebold said.

Bargains can be found

Still, there can be some bargains from time to time. In one case, a two-bedroom home valued at $25,000 sold for $2,500. Another time, an 80-acre farm sold for 70 cents an acre on the courthouse steps.

Property taxes -- which with interest and penalties total nearly $2,300 -- haven't been paid on a tract at 522 S. Frederick for the past 17 years. The property currently is nothing more than a grassy lot.

Taxes owed on some tiny tracts amount to less than $20.

Most parcels on which taxes are owed never get on the sale list because they are paid off within a year.

In all, the county and other local governments are owed $577,754 in back taxes on 1,296 property tax bills, Diebold said. A handful of the tax bills go back to the mid-1980s, but most date from the last two years. Most of those are delinquent property taxes from the 2000 tax year and aren't on the for-sale list, she said.

Property taxes for 2000 totaling $501,820 are owed for 989 tracts of land in Cape Girardeau County. But less than 200 tracts of land would be on this year's sale list, Diebold said. Those would be properties on which taxes also were owed for a previous year.

Interest on the delinquencies increases each month. The longer the tax bill is delinquent, the higher the interest and penalties on the debt.

Diebold sympathizes with property owners who owe back taxes. Some, she said, made an honest mistake; others got behind in paying their taxes because of health problems.

Still others, she said, routinely pay their taxes late.

McCulley said he wished his name had never made it on the delinquent tax list, which is published in the newspaper. "It is embarrassing," he said.