By Corey Williams
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Banks, investment firms and other companies owing property taxes to Detroit beware — the city is tired of waiting for its money.
Detroit plans to file 597 lawsuits to recoup $12.2 million owed from 2010-12 on more than 1,500 parcels of land, the city said Wednesday.
Property tax collection has been hit-and-miss for Detroit in past years. On the eve of the city’s December 2014 exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, then-emergency manager Kevyn Orr testified in bankruptcy court that Detroit was collecting only about 50 percent of its property taxes.
It’s been especially difficult to get owners of the thousands of vacant and abandoned properties in the city to pay up once they’ve been identified.
“For too long, there are those who chose not to pay what they owed in taxes, leaving everyone else to pay the price,” Detroit Treasurer and Deputy Chief Financial Officer David Szymanski said in a recent press release.
“We are working to improve city services for our residents, and to do that — whether its better police and fire protection, streetlights or better schools for our children — we need everyone who does business in this city to pay their fair share.”
Demand letters have been sent out and lawsuits are expected to be filed in the coming days.
The city says it only is going after companies that own property for profit and not individuals with fewer than three properties.
“We are trying to make it harder for profit-seekers to sit and speculate on property without keeping it up or paying taxes like everyone else,” Szymanski said. “We are not talking about the family that has fallen on tough times, those struggling to decide whether to feed their children or pay their taxes.”
“We went to great lengths to ensure that we were going after only those who bought property as investments, not as a place to live,” he added.
The city also will attempt to get back taxes owed to Wayne County, the Wayne County Community College District and Detroit’s public schools.
It plans, at some point, to also go after delinquent taxes from other years.
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