As Supreme Court decision looms, St. Louis County braces for possible departmental upheaval
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While the legal principle is on the table in this case, the moral principle is completely ignored by these “sales”. The proceeds should not be used for completely unrelated programs no matter how worthy they may be; if we want a “Mines and Minerals” department, budget and tax for it, not rely on the failures of others to foot that bill. When a property goes delinquent in taxes it can be sold to pay those taxes, but keeping the additional proceeds does seem like theft to me. The technicality seems to be that when delinquent the property is “seized” the new owner is government and they get to keep the proceeds, but in my view, unless a crime is involved no seizure is warranted, only a forced sale to pay the taxes and the rest returned to the owner.
Aren’t there such things as liens that they could have placed on these properties or perhaps payment options for back taxes? I have friends that lost properties. They are not seizing these properties correctly. They aren’t notifying all owners or making efforts to help these property owners. It’s not just properties, it’s personal belongings, real property…they have and do come in and remove the owners. Then they charge for removal of vehicles they take and household contents which they sell or keep. Then they appraise these properties above value without any appraisals or comps. They are putting 18,000. Values on 0.85 acres and classifying the properties as recreational for their tax valuations. I know of one instance where they illegally seized the property, removed the structure and contents and left two uncapped wells during the time the county had seized it. When they determined they were in the wrong, they wanted to return the property to the rightful owner and call it good. They removed the structure and all his personal belongings, and wanted to return the property in a literal stripped condition and then wanted him to pay the taxes back 5 years while they had it in their possession–return a vacant 0.85 acre with 2 uncapped wells. Since when does a government profit off of its people’s misfortune??? It’s criminal what they did to all these people. Like they didn’t have a clue what they were doing was wrong. Those are the individuals running your government’s revenue-generating scheme. It’s fraudulent, gouging. Not only do they rob the owners of the properties, they fraudulently sell these properties and scam the purchasers, too.
They just recently took my family home and land, and, yes, ALL belongings. They say they are trying to prevent homelessness but didn’t blink an eye and lied numerous times and ways to take our home–and weren’t satisfied until they did..and this was after my mother died, but while she was alive my parents never were late on paying their taxes and never missed a single payment. I did everything they demanded and about a week before my first payment was due got a call from them saying they were going to cancel my contract to repurchase from them for missing the payment, which would put me in breach of contract so they could cancel contract legally in their opinion–but my payment wasn’t even due yet!! They didn’t care about Covid causing loss of hours even though I could prove income loss from when signed contract and terms could’ve been easily met. I hope and pray my home is included in this investigation and gets returned to me. It would be a blessing from God if they had to pay back for all belongings they STOLE that are irreplaceable and also for making me suffer the hardship of being homeless undeservingly!
Hennepin County and St. Louis County should be ashamed for their position in these cases. The Supreme Court has signaled in many cases over the past 9 years that it is going to protect private property rights and not let “government” at any level exploit the poor and those of modest means. Just look at the Knick case where the US Supreme Court said the government cannot tell an owner of land that contains a cemetery, that they must open it to the public. And another case out of California where the Supreme Court said that a state cannot force a private landowner to allow union organizing on private land. The writing is on the wall. Maki, as an elected official, should think independently, and not support this nonsense. And, “yes”, it could go back at least 7 years of having to reimburse those that the counties have stolen equity from when selling their seized private property.
The amicus brief St. Louis County filed, shows about $255k in losses on 9 properties over the last 6 years or so.
The county collected $152.5M in property taxes in 2021. They made $1.7M from land sales in 2021 They had $1.8M in delinquent taxes receivable in 2021, near as I can tell from the annual comprehensive financial report.
How much beyond the taxes owed do they make on these land sales? Commissioner Grimm says “That’s millions of dollars each year” How many millions? Is there a more accurate estimate of the impact?
How much time lapses between the last tax payment, and the forfeiture, and how many notices are sent? How much time do people have to sell the property themselves for more than the tax value, in order to pay the taxes and collect the profit themselves? How many of these properties with residual value were forfeited by estates or companies vs. people?
I recently just went through this. If there is back taxes owed an owner cannot sell their property because it is no longer theirs. It is the state’s until taxes are paid in full, you cannot even get a loan on your house/property to pay the back taxes because its not considered yours anymore! And furthermore the contract that the Land and Minerals Department makes you sign is deceiving, you think you’ve met their demands, no matter what you do once they are involved–they’re gonna find a way to take your home! My story is a lot like the lady’s in this article! And St. Louis County Land and Minerals Department are a bunch of heartless thieves!