The Lucas County Treasurer's Office expects to distribute payments totaling about $9.8 million to school districts, cities, and other taxing districts from the sale of liens on delinquent property taxes, Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz announced yesterday.

The money will come from the sale of liens on about 4,800 tax-delinquent parcels to a New Jersey collection company.

The largest single recipient from the tax-lien sale will be Toledo Public Schools, which will receive $3,598,196.

Mr. Kapszukiewicz said Lucas County is the seventh county in the state to take advantage of the power approved in 1997 to sell liens on parcels with delinquent taxes to a collection agency.

He said his office awarded the tax-lien sales to Xpand, of Morristown, N.J., a subsidiary of Bear Stearns Cos. Inc., for $9.8 million, which gives it the right to collect on the delinquent parcels and to charge interest rates of up to 18 percent.

The lien sales will take effect Nov. 30, unless the owners of the 4,800 properties pay their bills in full or qualify to be put on a payment plan.

Mr. Kapszukiewicz campaigned in 2004 on a promise to try the tax-lien sale, which he said would help dislodge millions of unpaid taxes that were not being collected by his predecessor, Ray Kest.

"This program does not target anyone who is making a good-faith attempt to pay their taxes," Mr. Kapszukiewicz said.

Mr. Kapszukiewicz said the 4,800 parcels account for 2 percent of all the parcels in Lucas County, and about 18 percent of all the delinquent parcels. Excluded from the tax-lien sale, he said, were parcels owned by seniors, people on disability, and people who were on payment plans.

The largest single delinquent tax bill on the list is Genesis Dreamplex LLC, a former Holiday Inn on South Reynolds Road that is now owned by the First Church of God. The Rev. Robert Culp, the church pastor, said the church has applied for tax-exempt status on the facility, which ceased operating as a hotel in December.

"We didn't buy it to run a hotel. We bought it as a ministry center," Mr. Culp said. He said he expects the tax-exempt status to be approved. It was not clear whether that would erase the unpaid taxes that have accrued since 2004.

The lowest unpaid bill is $46 for a small home on Spring Street in North Toledo.

Included among the delinquent properties are 27 parcels in the North Toledo Manhattan Marsh area on which a total of $9,364 in property taxes is owed by two nonprofit groups.

Many of the properties belong to businesses and partnerships. Maumee Associates LLC owns 120 parcels at 2250 Perrysburg-Holland Rd., Springfield Township, on which a total of $122,743 is owed.

John Foley, interim superintendent of the Toledo school district, said the $3.5 million check, when it arrives, will be used to reduce the district's 2007-2008 deficit, projected to be as much as $13 million.

"Anytime we can collect taxes that are owed, it's certainly a benefit to the children of Toledo Public Schools and to the taxpayers," Mr. Foley said.

He said it doesn't solve the district's need for a new operating levy.

Mr. Kapszukiewicz said payments will go to 50 taxing districts in Lucas County based on where the delinquent properties are located. The largest individual recipients, after Toledo Public Schools, are Washington Local Schools ($489,480), Board of Mental Retardation ($472,230), Sylvania City Schools ($462,041), City of Toledo ($343,169), Springfield Local School District ($302,675), Lucas County Children Services ($259,530), Oregon City Schools ($225,478), Lucas County general fund ($216,789), and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library ($206,607).

Contact Tom Troy at:

tomtroy@theblade.com

or 419-724-6058.

First Published October 6, 2006, 11:42 a.m.