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PARKERSBURG - Wood County officials are looking at how to process certain tax payments after the county did not receive paperwork from the state about how around 107 local taxpayers redeemed their property from delinquent taxes.
Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard and Assessor John Kelly appeared with personnel from their offices before the Wood County Commission on Thursday to discuss the matter.
There are several property owners who have not received back tax tickets for the past few years, Kelly said.
The State Auditor’s office sends redemption forms to the assessor's office after a taxpayer redeems their property from delinquent taxes, Kelly said. In 2024, there were several forms the office never received around February and March, he added.
"We did not receive two months of redemptions," said Deputy Assessor Connie McAtee. She did not know the exact reason why those forms were not sent to the county.
When they do get them, they are immediately entered into their system, she said. This marks the property as taxable again.
Since they never received the forms, the properties were never made taxable, officials said.
"What is going to happen is (the Sheriff's Tax Office) is going to have people who did not get tickets for three (or) four years since they were never notified," McAtee said.
People will be receiving all of those tax tickets at once.
Kelly said they would like to send a letter out to each property owner to notify them of the upcoming tax bills that they will be receiving in July.
Wood County Sheriff's Chief Tax Deputy Camille Waldron said the property owners have traditionally been required to pay the oldest tax ticket first. However, they cannot come in and pay the oldest ticket now because they don't have it in their system.
"They have to wait until next year when the tax tickets are generated and all those back tickets are put in before they can even pay," she said. "We have had people who have come in to pay, wanting to pay their taxes, because they haven't gotten a bill, but we can't let them do anything because we don't have a bill."
One option would be suspending the newest tickets to let them pay the oldest first.
Waldron said they will work with people the best they can to get this situation straightened out.
McAtee said they have contacted the state about the possibility of making a supplemental ticket, but they can't do that since the property does not officially appear in the county records yet as a taxable property.
"They will not let us do that," she said.
Wood County Commission President Blair Couch said they don't want to put any of the taxpayers "in a bad way because of a screw-up done by the state."
Couch said he has been in contact with West Virginia Department of Revenue Secretary Eric Nelson and West Virginia Tax Commissioner Matthew Irby to see if anything can be done.
Woodyard said the law now restricts county officials in what they can do.
"If we had our way about it, we would have a quick work-through," he said.
"We can't act until we get a bill," he said. "That is part of the check and balances; until we get the receipt of the bill, we can't take the money. Unless we get those tickets, we can't act."
Woodyard said they would do anything they can to fix the situation.
County officials said some of the affected people are seeking counsel to find a remedy.
"I'm going to invite them to sit in front of us because there has to be a way and they have to figure out a way for people to be able to handle their taxes as well as doesn't punish them for bad acts that were not their own,” Couch said.
Kelly said they have been working closely with the Sheriffs tax office to go over all back tax properties to ensure they are correct going forward.
He has offered to go to Charleston with Woodyard to meet with state officials.
"It is a fact the state did not get paperwork to us," he said. "It is no fault of the taxpayer."
Commissioner Jim Hamric said it would be unfair to expect these people to pay three or four years of taxes all at once.
Kelly said they will be checking regularly with the Auditor's office to make sure they are getting what they are supposed to.