Unpaid tax bills include Schenectady officials

Some of Schenectady’s most involved citizens are behind on their taxes.

School board member Tanya Hull is more than a year behind and has paid late for years as she struggled to catch up with her bills, she said.

She’s not alone. City Councilman John Mootooveren is a half-year behind on his school taxes, although he’s paid his city taxes in full. Former city Councilman Joseph Allen is also behind on his school taxes while paying his city taxes.

Stockade Neighborhood Association President Mary D’Alessandro, who helps run the city program urging people to buy homes in Schenectady, is a year behind on city taxes. She’s also a year and a half behind on school taxes.

This isn’t a new problem for any of them. School records show all of their bills have been paid late for years.

Mootooveren said his late payments were the fault of his escrow company. However, school records indicate he pays his bill, not an escrow company.

Allen, who did not return a call seeking comment, changed his ways this year. After years of late payments, he paid his city bill in full on the first installment date this year. But his last year of school taxes is still unpaid — he owes $715.

It’s a multi-million-dollar problem for the school district. Each year, $3 million to $5 million in taxes aren’t paid, forcing the school district to borrow money to cover that loss.

The delinquent bills are then handed to the city, which must pay the school district in full a year later. That causes its own problems — the city’s budget includes up to $5 million every year to pay those bills.

That means taxpayers pay additional city taxes to cover other taxpayers’ unpaid school taxes. They must also pay more in school taxes than strictly necessary to cover the interest payments for the school district’s short-term borrowing.

School board President Cathy Lewis was surprised a member of the board would pay late, knowing how much the school district needs the money.

“We’re constantly stretching,” she said. “Clearly we need to have the money.”

She added that the district would still have to borrow money because state aid is not paid until nearly the end of the school year.

“But clearly having the [tax] payments helps in reducing the amount we have to borrow,” Lewis said.

Each taxpayer tends to not owe much — while Allen owes $715 in school taxes, Hull owes $3,740 — but it adds up to a problem for the district.

“It’s the combined effect of all of it,” Lewis said.

“I guess I didn’t expect anyone to be too bothered by it,” Hull said, adding she was once several years behind on all her taxes.

“Just some things have happened. I had to play catch-up a little bit,” she said.

Hull is paid $56,775 as a corrections officer at the Schenectady County jail, where she has worked for more than 12 years.

She still owes all of last year’s city taxes — $3,610 — as well as the $3,740 in school taxes. She said she planned to pay off all of it when she received her income tax refund this year.

D’Alessandro said she tried her best to pay her taxes whenever she could.

“We certainly plan to pay them,” she said, “We budget it yearly. We put money away, and then we pay it.”

She currently owes $4,356 in city taxes and $2,319 in school taxes, all from last year. This school year’s tax is also accumulating, at $1,459 so far.

Mootooveren owes $1,143 in school taxes this year on one of three properties he owns. School records show the bill is routinely paid late, but generally paid before the end of the year. The cost: $123 in interest in 2011, $99 in 2012, $27 in 2013 and $47 so far for the current bill.

Mootooveren blamed escrow.

“I’ll have to talk to my bank. I have to check that. It’s in escrow,” he said.

The unpaid bills go to the city after a year, still accumulating interest. The city tries to collect the taxes at that point, chasing down property owners and eventually threatening them with foreclosure if they don’t pay.

That has led to some results. Lewis said the school district has seen a reduction in unpaid taxes, which she attributes to the foreclosures.

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