Louisa County is facing a unique issue when it comes to property tax collection.
The county took a closer look at tax payment delinquency, and what it found is as surprising as it is ironic. A substantial number of the county's own employees owe money on their property taxes - county revenue that, in effect, is ultimately used to pay their wages.
"It's 25 percent of county employees on personal property taxes," Louisa County Board of Supervisor's Chair Willie Harper said. "We may need to hold our county employees at a higher standard than we would the general population, if you will, because they are in essence paid through tax dollars."
According to a recent report from Louisa County Treasurer Henry Wash, one quarter of people on Louisa County's payroll haven't paid their personal property taxes. That amounts to between $50,000 and $60,000 in uncollected revenue.
"It dawned on him (Wash) that it's a large number of county employees who are delinquent," Harper said.
Many nearby counties and municipalities say the issue of employee tax delinquency is barely a blip on the radar. In Albemarle County, for example, only 18 people out of about 3,000 county employees are behind on tax payments. That's less than 1 percent. As far as enforcement goes, Albemarle simply docks employee pay to help them get back into compliance with their tax payments.
"We do have such a program through payroll deductions to help employees get back into compliance with their tax payments," Albemarle County spokeswoman Lee Catlin said.
Since this came to light earlier this month, Louisa County has managed to collect 10 percent of its delinquent property taxes. Despite the issue, this is a very small subset of taxpayers in Louisa. The county's collection rate is about 97 percent.
