The ripple effects of foreclosures are being felt in small townships   and municipalities. Billing clerk Rose Knable at Antrim Township has   been seeing to the collection of property taxes for more than a decade   but she has never seen such tough days. Delinquencies have tripled. The   situation has been going from bad to worse and there does not seem to be   any solution.

Knable explained that most of her customers just do not   have the dollars to clear their property taxes. Till now none owe her   more than $500. She said, “I have over $100,000 in delinquent fees not   collected. The numbers are high because we can’t shut them off.

We have   no way of making people pay”. The local administration places liens on   the properties but have to wait till the houses are sold to collect   payment. In some instances when the property changes hands Knable is   left wondering who to charge.

In general the water and sewerage lines are cut off if money is not   paid after a specified time lapse but Knable said that in Antrim   Township although water supply is cut off, sewerage lines are not   tampered with because of health problems. There are of course some who   intentionally refuse to come forward with payment because they are   confident that the service will not be cut off.

Last August there were 40 to 50 liens filed. Knable recounted that   people come up with sad tales when asked to clear their dues. They say   that their pockets permit them only to buy food. Sometimes “they call   from California and say they have moved. It does no good to file a lien   on them because those people are not going to pay. They’re away from   here now and they could care less”.

Knable tries to recover the dues from the foreclosure auctions but it is not always that she gets back the money.

Foreclosure ripples are being experienced in Mount Alto, one of the   smaller municipalities.  Patty Kocek, the borough secretary referring to   foreclosures and utility bills unpaid said, “We are seeing more of   them, but it’s not on the same level as other places because we’re   small. We haven’t gone the lien route yet”. Kocek added that generally   in Mont Alto there are three or four foreclosures annually.

The   delinquent customers falter on dues for water, sewerage facilities and   electricity. Kocek surmises that the owners of the houses being   foreclosed upon are “relatively new to the borough. They are mostly   coming to the borough over the last five years. They come in, take out   mortgage, and they lose their jobs”.