With approximately 7,000 state-owned tax forfeited properties scattered throughout Mississippi — just over 1,800 of which are located in the City of Jackson — it seems local and state lawmakers are gearing up to take some action.
At the end of August, the Select Committee on Capital and Metro Revitalization, made up of 19 members from the Mississippi House of Representatives, held a meeting to listen to people who are fighting the issue every day, including code enforcement officers in Jackson's Department of Planning and Development, officials from the Secretary of State's office and local and county law enforcement.
Also at the meeting was Ward 5 Jackson City Councilman Vernon Hartley, who presented to legislators the city's new "Abandoned Property Task Force." Hartley said the task force is in the middle of drawing up a "master plan" and invited members of the committee to join. Additionally, he emphasized the need for outside funding, as the city has struggled to find the resources to adequately tackle the problem.
With all this chatter and seeming interest from lawmakers, it begs the question: How are state-owned tax forfeited properties being handled right now? The short answer: It's a combined effort from both local and state departments, but one that is currently struggling due to the sheer number of those properties throughout the state.
How does a property turn into a state-owned tax forfeited property?
When a property owner fails to pay taxes for two years, then their property is included on a list of properties advertised for sale by the County Tax Collector, according to Miss. Code. tit. 1, pt. 11, ch. 1.
If no buyer is found, the property is removed from the sale list and is forfeited to the state, if not redeemed by the payment of taxes or any other fees within two years.
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Tax-Forfeited lands are held by the Public Lands Division, which is within Mississippi's Secretary of State's office and currently has two employees: Assistant Secretary of State Bill Chaney and Tyrone Hickman. Both are in-charge of maintaining and hopefully selling the state's tax-forfeited land inventory, which can be found on the Secretary of State's website.
How does the state maintain the properties once they are forfeited? They don't
Chaney and Hickman were at the Select Committee meeting at the end of August, and laid out how the process of acquiring and selling tax-forfeited properties works and some of the challenges they face.
The main challenge they face being maintenance. Most of the properties are dilapidated, vacant and have very low property value. But the Secretary of State's office "has no statutory authority, nor budgetary authority to clean up any property," Hickman said.
In other words, they can't maintain properties, and even if they could they don't have the money for it.
Hickman pointed to MS Code § 29-1-145 , which states municipalities can be reimbursed by the Secretary of State's office "in maintaining unredeemed lands" if they remain unsold. But, currently there is no money in that fund due to legislative changes in 2016 that ceased the funding.
"There has not been any money in that fund since 2016," Hickman said. "So when we get calls about cleaning it up or a clerk says, 'Well, reimburse us.' We cannot."
Chaney suggested legislators provide his office with more funds for cleaning up properties.
"We recognize the issue, we're trying to come up with ways within our statutory standing to help address them," Chaney said.
So, who does take care of the properties?
Since the state has no authority to maintain state-owned tax forfeited properties, it falls on the city where they are located to take the necessary steps — and allocate the necessary amount of dollars — to ensure they don't become public health hazards.
That has irked some members of the Jackson City Council, as was visible back in March when the council reluctantly approved spending $37,730 on cleaning up five state-owned properties. Two were in Ward 5, one in Ward 3, one in Ward 6 and one in Ward 7.
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"They're state-owned properties but the city's paying for it," Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes said at the time. "The state has way more money than we have and it seems like there should be a plan in place where the state can give to this city a timeframe of where we're going to have all houses torn down by the state, all lots cleaned that are owned by the state.
And while the Secretary of State's Office may not have the authority to maintain properties, Chaney and Hickman said they are "proactive" about working with municipalities in cleaning them up.
Samatha Graves, a code enforcement manager in Jackson, backed that up.
"We have a good relationship with the state," Graves said. "So, we'll get in contact with Tyrone (Hickman) and let him know what's going on and can he give us a letter of entry to the property … trying to work together and have that good close relationship because if we're helping them, they're helping us as well."
But a lack of code enforcement officers within the city is also an issue. Currently only three code-enforcement officers are employed though two more are being trained. Back in 2015 there were 15-20, according to Robert Brunson, a Jackson code enforcement officer who spoke at the select committee meeting.
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Last week, the council adopted the city's budget for fiscal year 2024-2025, which included raises for code enforcement officers, though it's unclear if there is additional funding to hire more.
Once a code enforcement officer receives entry to a state-owned abandoned property, they will assess the needs then the city will hire a contractor based on the assessment, Graves said. That could mean lawn care, asbestos and general clean-up and, sometimes, demolition. The council then has to sign off once a contractor is selected.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: State-owned tax forfeited properties are not cleaned up by the state. Who does it then?
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