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Delinquent taxes down in county
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MONROE - Green County property owners are paying off their current tax bills and back taxes faster than they have in the past five years, meaning county officials have to deal with fewer delinquencies.

The total, 5-year amount of all delinquent, past due tax bills, including special assessments, fees and interest, still owed to the county as of Sept. 1, 2014, is $1.3 million, which is about 26 percent less than the amount reported to the state on the same date in 2013, according to Green County Treasurer Sherri Hawkins.

On Sept. 1, Green County property owners still owed about $820,500 for 2013 taxes, or about 1.23 percent of the $66.46 million total in levies for the year.

Last year, on Sept. 9, the county was waiting for $1.044 million of 2012 taxes.

The annual delinquency rate this year is a marked decrease from the past rate of more than 2 percent in 2009 and in 2010. Delinquent taxpayers missed payments totaling about $1.3 million in each of those two years, with total tax levies of $60.4 million and $64.5 million.

In 2012 and 2013, delinquent taxpayers owed slightly more than $1 million in unpaid taxes for each year, with about $65 million levied.

Green County in October 2012 was waiting on $1.7 million of unpaid property taxes from the five-year period 2007-2011, with $1.04 million of it levied in 2011 and $724,000 in the prior years.

This September, the county is looking at $1.3 million of unpaid taxes from 2009 through 2013, with $820,500 still due this year and less than $500,000 from previous years.

384 property owners share the total $1.3 million of unpaid property taxes - some owe taxes on more than one piece of property and some owe more than one year of back taxes.

515 property owners owe $820,500 for 2013 taxes; 199 property owners still owe $310,400 for 2012 taxes; 83 owners owe $139,800 for 2011; 28 owners need to pay off about $38,000 for 2010; and six owners still owe $6,000 for 2009.

The municipalities where the greatest amounts of property taxes are still owned are the City of Monroe, $270,150; the City of Brodhead, $131,465; the Village of New Glarus, $140,384.57 and the Town of Exeter, $82,500. These four taxing districts also have the largest populations and the largest aggregate property values in the county.

The taxes still owed in all six Green County villages is $234,385. The total amount owed on property in the 16 towns is $678,715. Monroe and Brodhead are the only cities in the county.

No names of elected officials were found on the list of delinquent taxpayers.

A property owner's annual county tax bill includes the amounts levied by the state, local municipality, school district and technical college, and includes special assessments, fees and interest, when applicable. Property taxes are due and payable in the year after they are levied, and all annual taxes are due by July 31. Green County collects the tax money for the other taxing bodies and settles up with taxing jurisdictions by Aug. 20. Therefore, all property taxing entities, from the state down to local schools and towns, except the county, receive all their money by Aug. 20. The county bears the delinquencies until they are paid.