January 12, 2015 at 6:41 p.m.
Blight elimination is all positive
Editorial
Often the workings of government are as clumsy as a 13-year-old boy with size 12 shoes.
But now and then, things work.
That appears to be the case with the recent blight eradication grant to Dunkirk.
The pieces came together something like this.
When tax delinquent properties showed up before the Jay County Commissioners, an option other than a tax sale was offered.
If a municipality — such as Dunkirk — wanted title to the property, the county surrendered it at no charge. In other words, the county gave the property to the city.
A good chunk — if not all — of the properties on the tax delinquency list coincided with the city’s list of blighted buildings that needed to be torn down. Not every blighted property is tax delinquent, and not every tax delinquent property is blighted. But there’s an overlap.
The city then could apply for a grant from the state to raze the blighted buildings.
The grant required, as many do, a match of local funds.
But that’s where this system gets interesting.
The qualifying match for the grant was the amount of delinquent property taxes due on the properties. In Dunkirk’s case, something like $57,000 was owed in back taxes and that counted toward a grant of something like $175,000.
Funds from the grant will pay for demolition of the abandoned buildings and clean-up of the properties. Bids will be sought from a number of contractors before the city awards contracts for demolition.
Once an abandoned building is demolished and the land cleaned up, the property will first be offered to the adjoining property owners at a sweetheart price of a few hundred dollars. When that happens, the land goes back on the tax rolls.
Sure, it won’t be appraised as highly as it would have been with a dwelling on it. It will be taxed as bare ground.
But think of all the good things that have happened:
•The property is returned to the tax rolls.
•The blighted building has been demolished and cleaned up.
•The cancerous spread of blight in a neighborhood has been arrested.
•The adjoining property owners who have seen their own property values affected by the blight now have control.
All things considered, that’s hard to beat. —J.R.
But now and then, things work.
That appears to be the case with the recent blight eradication grant to Dunkirk.
The pieces came together something like this.
When tax delinquent properties showed up before the Jay County Commissioners, an option other than a tax sale was offered.
If a municipality — such as Dunkirk — wanted title to the property, the county surrendered it at no charge. In other words, the county gave the property to the city.
A good chunk — if not all — of the properties on the tax delinquency list coincided with the city’s list of blighted buildings that needed to be torn down. Not every blighted property is tax delinquent, and not every tax delinquent property is blighted. But there’s an overlap.
The city then could apply for a grant from the state to raze the blighted buildings.
The grant required, as many do, a match of local funds.
But that’s where this system gets interesting.
The qualifying match for the grant was the amount of delinquent property taxes due on the properties. In Dunkirk’s case, something like $57,000 was owed in back taxes and that counted toward a grant of something like $175,000.
Funds from the grant will pay for demolition of the abandoned buildings and clean-up of the properties. Bids will be sought from a number of contractors before the city awards contracts for demolition.
Once an abandoned building is demolished and the land cleaned up, the property will first be offered to the adjoining property owners at a sweetheart price of a few hundred dollars. When that happens, the land goes back on the tax rolls.
Sure, it won’t be appraised as highly as it would have been with a dwelling on it. It will be taxed as bare ground.
But think of all the good things that have happened:
•The property is returned to the tax rolls.
•The blighted building has been demolished and cleaned up.
•The cancerous spread of blight in a neighborhood has been arrested.
•The adjoining property owners who have seen their own property values affected by the blight now have control.
All things considered, that’s hard to beat. —J.R.
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