Collecting fees still makes sense

Okay, so Jay County isn’t owed $3.9 million in overdue court costs.
Turns out that figure is inflated, since the bulk of that amount is owed to the state.
But, just the same, the county is owed more than $660,000. And that is nothing to sneeze at.
The court fees date back to 2006 and have been pretty much ignored by both local government and the state.
These days, however, local government needs to get its hands on any cash it can without raising taxes.
And that’s where the focus on unpaid court fees comes into play.
Can they all be collected? Of course not. That’s not a reasonable expectation.
But some of them can, and there ought to be a disciplined effort to collect those dollars owed.
If even just 25 percent of the outstanding balance were to be collected, that’s more than $150,000. And our guess is that the final total, even allowing for a collection agency fee, would be significantly higher.
There is already a precedent for using a collection agency to collect child support administrative fees, and it has been successful.
As county councilman Gary Theurer put it, “If it’s out there … we need to see what we can get.”
Makes sense. In fact, it makes dollars and cents. — J.R.