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Hardin County courthouse
Hardin County Tax Assessor-Collector Shirley Cook reported a slight increase in delinquent taxes compared to last year.
At the July 12 meeting of the Hardin County Commissioners Court, Cook reported about $200,000 in delinquent taxes during her presentation of lands and lots delinquent on June 30 for taxes for the Fiscal Year 2022.
According to the Certificate of Commissioners Court, $1.335 million in delinquent taxes is owed to Hardin County.
“Hopefully with us going to court more for our delinquent taxes maybe that will help us get those numbers back,” Cook said. “It’s not a lot but we have to get those numbers back.”
According to the report, $3.423 million in delinquent taxes is owed to the 17 other jurisdictions that Cook’s office collects taxes for.
The amount of delinquent taxes owed to five school districts is $745,639 to Hardin-Jefferson ISD, $770,049 to Silsbee ISD, $576,714 to Kountze ISD, $536,007 to Lumberton ISD and $417,528 to West Hardin CISD.
Among the four cities, Silsbee has $94,554 in delinquent taxes, Sour Lake $34,482, Kountze $33,370 and Rose Hill Acres $1,349.
There is $55,222 of delinquent taxes for Emergency Services District No. 2 (Lumberton), $32,603 for ESD No. 5 (Sour Lake), $29,060 for ESD No. 1 (Kountze), $21,306 for ESD No. 6 (Silsbee), $16,567 for ESD No. 4 (Batson) and $11,228 for ESD No. 3 (Saratoga).
She reported $39,458 in delinquent taxes for the Lumberton Municipal Utilities District (MUD) and $8,335 for West Hardin Water Control and Improvement District (WCID).
Concerning the comparison of tax collections for Tax Year 2021 and 2022, Cook reported it was -2.4% for Hardin County.
“We are at 96.35% of collections for Hardin County,” she said. “For all the jurisdictions that we collect for, we’re at 96.65%, which is down 2.1%.”
She noted when taxes go delinquent on July 1, she has to present percentages that have been collected as of June 30 to the court.
“We run these reports periodically to see where were are,” said Cook. “Sometimes, collections are slower and July is also a quarter payment month for the elderly and disabled. So after those collections, we’ll be doing another report after the end of July.”