Who’s not paying taxes? Check out the I-Team’s Top 10 list

CINCINNATI - Around Ohio, county treasurers are watching carefully as they prepare the upcoming half-year real estate tax bills. That’s because some counties have seen record high delinquency rates in the last three years, at a time local governments are struggling to pay the bills.

Hamilton County treasurer Robert Goering says the delinquency rate exceeded 5 percent in recent years, far higher than the normal 3-4 percent. “We’ve seen the slowdown that we’ve had in the economy, particularly in the real estate market has clearly affected people’s ability to pay mortgages, to pay living expenses, and it trickles down obviously, to pay their real estate tax bills.”

Property taxes fund more than half of local school budgets. They pay for roads, sheriff’s deputies, garbage pickup and snow removal. Cincinnati School District treasurer Jonathan Boyd says, “Unlike a business, we operate on cash so if you have the cash, you can spend it. If you don’t, you can’t.” He says that impacts teachers, programs and supplies, all of which of course impact students.

So who isn’t paying their property taxes? The I-Team got the database from the auditor’s office, crunched the numbers, and came up with a top 10 list. But it wasn’t the individual homeowners you might expect. In fact, even County Treasurer Goering says, “Your computer search really brought to light some interesting facts about this.”

For one, the top 10 delinquencies are all business-related, and they represent three times the losses to the county as homes have presented. Further, if you add them all, the county is late collecting $9 million this year.

At the top of our list: a property that goes by the name of Atrium Hotel and Conference Center, in Springdale. It features 100 hotel rooms and extensive banquet facilities. While Auditor office records indicate a mortgage foreclosure in process, the business remains open. It owes property taxes and penalties worth more than $328,000.

Manager Jyoti Desai says she knows nothing of a foreclosure or an owed tax bill. She referred us to the accountant, AJ Patel. He also told us a foreclosure “was news to me” and that the tax bill is based on “inflated value” so he’s “filed an appeal.” We asked him to call the owners in San Francisco because the number we have was for a budget hotel where those who answered the phone indicated they didn’t know anything. Patel told us even he couldn’t reach the owners.

Number four on the list is a place that shows up on the tax rolls as Martini on Ice, but most people in Cincinnati know it as Sports Plus. The Sharonville ice rink business currently is changing hands to new ownership, called the Sphere, while remaining open for business.

We found Martini on Ice’s owner, Greg Martini, and asked him about the $244,500 the business owes the county. Martini says the property’s valuation doubled in recent years, but that’s not why the bill was outstanding. He says his previous tenant was supposed to pay the tax bill as part of his lease but failed to do so. Martini says, “I had to go out and work it out ‘cause I own the buildings but it was his responsibility. He didn’t pay it. It came back on us.” Now, he says “I have negotiated with the county and we are paying it, making payments on it.”

Goering says most properties on the list aren’t paying up. They include empty industrial lots, office buildings and vacant businesses. And despite high demand for parking downtown, the list includes two parking garages in prime real estate, including one of the largest garages downtown, Tower Place Garage. On the tax rolls, its name is Pogue’s Garage LLC. It owners in Rockville Centre, New York owe the county $279,000.

Goering says for most on the list we generated, “This is the end of the line.” Unless they arrange a payment plan by the end of this month, their properties will be sold to the highest bidder in a sheriff’s sale on the courthouse steps.

The county will collect those $9 million, one way or another.

Go to http://media2.wcpo.com/pdfs/TopTenList.pdf to view the top 10 commercial property tax delinquents in Hamilton County.