Efforts intensify to curb Fulton's tax lien sales

Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand and others have raised concerns about the legislation undermining the tax collection process, which governments rely upon to keep revenue flowing.

Some observers say the legislation, which stalled last year, has been watered down by rewrites. The legislation's powerful sponsor, however, plans to take up the cause again in the current session.

"When the bill finishes," said Adam Pipkin, chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, "there will be teeth in it. I promise."

Over the past year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a series of stories about Fulton's sale of liens and problems with the system. The county routinely sells overdue tax bills to private third parties who assume collection responsibility. Ferdinand said the system allows him to efficiently collect taxes and keep county services funded.

Some taxpayers have complained, however, that they never received notification and found themselves saddled with debt.

Last year, Rogers introduced a measure that would have required tax commissioners to notify property owners about overdue bills using certified mail and would have prevented them from foreclosing or selling liens until they were delinquent for one year. It also would have prohibited selling liens for a tax bill under appeal.

Experts said such provisions would have made the tax collection process more burdensome and costly, and they were cut from the legislation. Senate Bill 234 unanimously passed the Senate but stalled in the House.

"It was just an onerous bill," Ferdinand said. "It was potentially very damaging to taxpayers, from my perspective."

Activist R.J. Morris, who has been working with Rogers on tax efforts, said lobbying by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia took the muscle out of it.

"Either the bill is dead," he said, "or it's going to be so watered down that it needs to be killed."

Clint Mueller, the ACCG's legislative director, said his organization did not oppose Rogers' bill. He said another lobbyist, who he would not identify, “put the brakes” on it last year.

A lobbyist himself, and a real estate investor who blames the county's overtaxation and strong-arm collection tactics for causing him to lose about 50 rental properties and being on the verge of foreclosure with 20 more, Morris announced at Thursday's legislative delegation meeting that he will run against Ferdinand as an independent in November.

His message for Fulton's Senate and House members: Northside residents may do most of the complaining, but Southside property owners are suffering more under the county's tax practices.

He handed them copies of a legislative study Rogers requested, undertaken by the Senate Research Office with Morris' help. The study deemed 89 neighborhoods overvalued by the tax assessors office by 20 percent or more.

"And 88 of the 89 neighborhoods were in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in south Fulton," Morris said.

Ferdinand said if his office loses the ability to sell liens, his only option to collect delinquent taxes will be to foreclose, which would hit homeowners worse.

"He's politicking," the tax commissioner said of Morris. "Liens are sold all over the county, north and south. It's pretty well distributed."