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Craighead County delinquent collections continue

Craighead County is continuing to make strides in collecting delinquent taxes that are owed to the county.  During a meeting of the Craighead County Quorum Court’s Finance and Administration Committee, Administrative Assistant Tony Thomas provided numbers about the recent collections over the past month.  Over one million dollars in taxes have been collected, which includes almost $500,000 in both delinquent personal property and business taxes.  Craighead County Tax Collector Marsha Phillips says that since 2008, the county has been owed at least 611-thousand dollars in delinquent business taxes.  The county has been collecting some of those delinquent business taxes every month. The possibility of placing liens on those pieces of property has been discussed in the past.  Phillips says delinquent personal property taxes have been coming in as well.  She says that those who are behind are taking their tax refunds and paying those back. 

In other business, Craighead County Treasurer Terry McNatt says he is keeping his eye on several areas of concern.  He says the county’s sales tax collections are steady, which is helping keep the operations of the county going.  McNatt says that helps as other collections are well below where they should.  He says a tight economy is keeping the collections of court fines low.  Additionally, the state’s turnback money is not where it should be.  Turnback money is money that is sent to the state and then sent back to Craighead County.  He says the county roads department’s turnback money is slow to come in at this time.   He says the collection of delinquent taxes also helps the county.  McNatt also says they are expecting $11,000 in Payment in Lieu of Taxes and they have only received $330.  State land sales are only $10,000, which is 15% of overall money that is owed.  Right now, the county's overall tax collections for the year is 16%, which concerns McNatt as he looks at the next couple of months. 

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.