Exeter owed $3.5 million in unpaid taxes, bills

No one should be surprised that some people don't pay their bills, especially their tax bills. What is surprising is how government reacts. Taxes are supposed to be a fee for service. So when you don't pay your taxes you're getting the services for free and passing the cost along to your neighbors. Is that fair?

But as the Exeter News-Letter reports, some town selectmen are not exactly watching out for the taxpayers. If you don't pay your cable bill the cable company stops providing you service. Don't make your car payments and your car gets repossessed. But if you don't pay your water and sewer bills? Exeter will keep providing you the service, they'll increase taxes on your neighbors to pay for it, and maybe the selectmen will think about putting a lien on your property at some point.

Selectmen mull liens on property, water
Lara Bricker
newsletter@seacoastonline.com
August 07, 2009 6:00 AM

Selectman Robert Aldrich wants to know what options the town has to recoup some or all of $3.5 million in unpaid property taxes and other monies owned to the town.

After seeing a story in the Portsmouth Herald about the amount of unpaid parking tickets in the city of Portsmouth, Aldrich said he became curious about Exeter's outstanding revenues.

The amount of unpaid property taxes in Exeter has just about doubled from 2008, according to figures compiled by Aldrich from the town's Assessing Department. As of July 31, the town was owed $1,139,314.31 in back taxes, while in 2008 the town was owned $573,111.56 in back taxes.

The second biggest category of unpaid bills is water and sewer accounts. As of July 31, 2009, the town was owed $897,179.47 while in 2008 the amount of unpaid bills for these services totaled $549,318.34.

"There's a lot of money outstanding that's owed to the town of Exeter this year," Aldrich said. "This obviously has an impact on our operations and our bond rating, and everything else." (more)