08/13/07 Failure to pay leads to big problems

It happens from time to time. Today six Treasure Valley property owners face having their property sold at public auction in less than two weeks because they have failed to pay irrigation district taxes for more than three years. Daren Coon of the Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District says individual unpaid taxes on six Ada and Canyon county properties range from 283 dollars to 15 hundred 17 dollars. COON "Some of the property owners confuse the issue of not using water and equate that with not paying irrigation tax." The combined tax assessment value on the six properties up for auction is more than one million 376 thousand dollars. That means that properties could end up being sold for two tens of one percent of their assess value, all because of failed irrigation tax payments. COON "Over 35 thousand tracts of land that we assess and that far exceeds any other irrigation district in the state of Idaho so the amount of properties that actually make it to the tax deed auction process is an extremely minute portion." Coon is hopeful that the fees will be paid, the cases cleared and the auction on August 21st won't be necessary. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott