Legislation introduced Friday in the state House would strike state law that allows tax commissioners to make money off delinquent tax bills they sell to private collectors.
Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, said House Bill 819, would cut off one of the personal fees that Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, the state's highest-paid elected official, has been collecting. He earns a 50-cent fee every time his office sells a tax debt to a private collection firm or a taxpayer settles up on a lien. He has been pocketing roughly $22,000 to $31,000 extra per year, which has boosted his pay to about $383,000. County commissioners were unaware of the arrangement until it was exposed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The bill is also designed to curb profits for lien-buyers. Ferdinand has employed a controversial practice of selling delinquent tax bills to private companies for collection. Quick sales of delinquent tax bills, before the county collected a 10 percent penalty, have handed as much as $20 million in potential profits to Vesta Holdings, the biggest lien buyer, with a corresponding $20 million loss to taxpayers.
Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, the bill's main sponsor, said the bill also would require tax commissioners to do their "due diligence" to find those who owe property taxes before a lien can be placed on the property and before that lien can be sold to a private company for collection.
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