POPLARVILLE —
Saying they were afraid some people might be forced onto the streets in cold weather, supervisors on Monday approved a resolution requesting the tax assessor-collector and sheriff postpone a sale of mobile homes whose owners were delinquent on taxes.
At a sheriff’s sale scheduled for Thursday, the county was prepared to auction off 88 mobile homes of owners who owe delinquent taxes on them. The sale now will be postponed for 60 days.
The supervisors took the action when board attorney Joe Montgomery told them he did not know whether or not they had the legal authority to stop the sale because it was delineated by law for the tax assessor-collector and sheriff to conduct it.
Tax Assessor-Collector Gary Beech and Sheriff David Allison, who attended Monday’s supervisor session, said they would postpone the sale in deference to the supervisors’ resolution.
In another development regarding mobile homes, supervisors also passed a resolution grandfathering in established mobile homes under a new wind zone law recently implemented. The new guideline would allow mobile homes with a wind zone 1 rating to be moved to a new location within the county and be reconnected to the electrical grid, although not having a wind zone 2 rating, which regulations now require.
The new grandfather clause would apply to mobile homes that were already established and connected to the electrical grid inside the county, and would not cover new mobile homes brought into the county or new trailers sold here.
County planner Ed Pinero, Jr., said the change would allow those who have mobile homes designated wind zone 1 to move their trailers short distances inside the county without fear of losing a county permit that allows them to hook back into the electrical grid after settling in a new location.
On the other matter, the postponement of the tax sale was prompted when board president and supervisor Anthony Hales said he did not favor putting anybody out on the street “in this cold weather.”
Said Hales, “I don’t want to put anybody out in the cold. How do we proceed on this?”
Beech said that his tax personnel who handled the notifications and inspected the mobile homes had taken pains to identify those living in the homes who are handicapped or who were sick.
The issue county officials face in handling the mobile home tax sales is that unlike a tax sale of a regular brick-and-mortar home, when a mobile home is sold, purchasers can take immediate possession and “put out” the owner. A mobile home does not fall under the ad valorem designation but under personal property like one’s automobile.
Hales asked if the county knew the status of each of the mobile homes. “Are they abandoned; are they occupied; do we know?” asked Hales.
A tax official told Hales that it was listed on each card whether or not the trailer was occupied, the trailer’s condition and other pertinent information about the property.
Said Hales, “Once you purchase that mobile home at a tax sale, you own it and can acquire the property. I don’t think the board wants to be a party to putting people out in the cold weather.” When a regular brick-and-mortar home is sold for taxes, an owner can have two years to redeem it, supervisors were told.
“I am not for selling someone’s trailer and then the next day have someone come by and say, ‘Get your stuff and get out of here.’ I am just not going to be a part of that,” said Hales.
Said Beech, “There are people here on this list who have not paid taxes for five or six years, since the day they owned it.”
Tax officials also pointed out that they started out two years ago with 2,000 mobile homes in arrears and have collected the vast majority of what was owed and in arrears.
Said Supervisor Sandy Kane Smith, “Are these people calling; is this working? I would like to see and know if this is working, if it is getting people to pay what they owe.”
Two members of the audience spoke up. Donna Knezevich, who with her husband, Joe, regularly attends the session, told supervisors that she was against property taxes, believes they should be abolished, but what do you say to those who pay their taxes if you allow others to get by without paying?
“As you know I am against property taxes. But how do you justify selling someone’s home for property taxes, and then letting these others off?” she asked. “I don’t think a person should ever be thrown out of their home, but how can you do it on one hand and not on the other? If I don’t pay my taxes on my house, it’s gone.”
Another man from Sones Chapel Community said his taxes had risen in each of the last 10 years, and that if taxes continued to rise, that some elderly and poor people would “lose their homes.” He said that he pays more taxes on 100 acres than the timber companies pay on a section of land. “There is going to have to be a change, a re-evaluation,” he said.
Concerning the wind zone matter, Pinero said that the number of mobile home owners seeking to move their homes inside Pearl River County who would fall under the grandfather clause, is very small, maybe one or two a month.
Regulations now being enforced by the state have placed the bottom six counties of the state in a wind zone 2 category that requires mobile homes located in that area to be capable of withstanding winds of 110 mph.
The problem has been with those that were already established here with wind zone 1 classifications. The wind zone classification requirements are built into the trailer when it is manufactured, so there was no way to reclassify the many wind zone 1 trailers.
The problem cropped up when the wind zone 1 trailers were moved within the county, they could not be reclassified to wind zone 2, so they could not be reconnected to the electrical grid at their new location.
The resolution adopted by supervisors on Monday would fix that by grandfathering into the new system the old trailers already established here.
In other matters, the supervisors:
— Approved travel requests by the sheriff’s department to attend training in Jackson on Feb. 3 and to attend a clandestine lab enforcement course in Ellisville on Feb. 16.
— Adjourned to Monday, Feb. 7.