Would you give up $795 in order to save thousands of dollars? That was a question facing the Hannibal City Council during Tuesday night’s meeting at city hall.
Kathy and Lester Parrish asked the council to waive $795 in special taxes that has been assessed against property at 425 Edwards Road as a result of city weed mowing. The couple want to purchase the property and rehab it for rental property. Lester Parrish indicated the purchase of the property hinges on whether the special taxes are forgiven.
“We’d rather see you rehab it and put it back on the tax rolls than us have to tear it down, as long as we don’t get written up for violating the charter,” said Mayor Roy Hark.
City Attorney James Lemon warned the council that forgiving a special assessment tax is a violation of the city charter. That raised the question: Is a property lien, such as the one against the Edwards Road property, the same as a tax?
A motion to approve the request, and also change city ordinances which refer to such liens as a tax, was defeated by a 4-3 vote.
Also brought up for consideration was a proposal that would see the Parrishes pay the $795, which would have been placed in escrow. If the couple restored the property so that it qualified for an occupancy permit within six months, the money would have been remitted to them. That proposal, while raised twice, was never brought up for a vote.
The council did vote to table the matter until Lemon can do further case law research to determine if such a lien is actually a tax.
If additional details, see the Wednesday, Jan. 6, edition of the Hannibal Courier-Post.
