BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG – Following St. Lawrence County’s denial of a sales-tax extension with the city, Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly says he will immediately push for a change in a long-standing rule that requires the city to pay St. Lawrence County and the Ogdensburg City School District for delinquent property taxes.

St. Lawrence County Attorney Stephen Button said the county did not have any comment on the issue at this time.

The property tax foreclosure rule requires the city to pay the county and school compensation for private property owners who fail to pay their local land taxes.

For non-city status municipalities the rules are different. The county, rather than the towns and villages, pays delinquent taxes and takes ownership of the properties.

Skelly wants Ogdensburg to receive the same treatment. Doing so would require a charter change. The city’s own charter includes the tax foreclosure authority rules.

The Ogdensburg mayor said he will give the city manager 120 days to make legal changes needed to end the city’s practice of making the county and school whole on unpaid property taxes. He said the city manager will also be asked to give city council an update on progress within 60 days.

“The city of Ogdensburg can no longer sustain the financial burden associated with the property tax jurisdiction law within the city’s incorporated boundaries,” Skelly said in a prepared statement. “I am working on a resolution now that if enacted by city council in the coming weeks will lift this one-sided burden from the shoulders of Ogdensburg taxpayers and free up millions in fresh operating capital in future years.”

According to Skelly, last year the city of Ogdensburg paid the Ogdensburg school district and the St. Lawrence County government approximately $786,000 and $386,000, respectively, to offset the amount owned by city property owners for their delinquent taxes.

In his statement Skelly said that was just a portion of what Ogdensburg actually owes both taxing jurisdictions going back nearly two decades.

He said the city is the only municipality in St. Lawrence County that has such an agreement with the county and that changing the way city foreclosures are handled is long overdue.

“The city currently owes more than $800,000 to the county related to delinquent taxes dating back to 2003,” Skelly’s statement said. “I am working with the city manager now and will be presenting a resolution to the full city council charting a course for making changes to our local tax law that will not only pay off what we owe the county and school but will eliminate that burden in the future.”

Skelly said the change takes on more significance since county officials are unwilling to sign a multi-year sales tax sharing extension with the city.

“With my board’s approval I plan to ask the city manager to secure whatever legal, accounting and other services are needed to push these changes through in the coming weeks and months,” Skelly’s statement said. “County officials again on Monday gave the public an opportunity to see how good they are at talking out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand they pay lip service to the idea of helping the city out and in the next breath they fail to put their money where their mouth is by voting down a resolution that would have given Ogdensburg some breathing room while the city works through its financial difficulties.”

Under the current Property Tax Foreclosure Authority rules the city of Ogdensburg takes possession of delinquent tax properties and later sells those properties at public auction. However, in exchange, Ogdensburg officials must pay the county and school district the amount owed in back taxes.

Skelly said changing the rules would mean that St. Lawrence County would take possession of the tax delinquent properties and pay the school district and city for back taxes. The Ogdensburg mayor said he plans to draft a resolution for the full council to be presented in the coming days.

Skelly said the tax foreclosure jurisdiction change would additionally mean that the county would also be required to make the city itself whole for unpaid property taxes within the city limits.

“By our calculations, if the tax foreclosure law was changed, the county would have owed the city of Ogdensburg more than $500,000 last year,” Skelly’s statement said. “We have no choice but to move forward with these changes. If the St. Lawrence County legislature wants to continue trying to bleed us dry, we have no choice but to make whatever changes are needed to level the financial playing field.”

He added, “It’s amazing that St. Lawrence County, with one of its largest fund balances in recent memory, continues to take aim at taxpayer dollars generated in Ogdensburg in order to satisfy its own inability to reduce the size of its own bloated taxpayer funded bureaucracy in Canton.”