Michigan Family Loses Home To Tax Man

Letter to Romans: Sup Ct to decide if Michigan County tax collectors can seize ‘n sell a family home on a legal technicality & even tho all taxes had allegedly been paid. Whoa. Hello 5^th Amendment? Regardless, shouldn’t Lincolnian common sense have prevented this injustice?

The facts in Estate of Pung v Isabella County are complicated but according to Fox News, a family inherited an old home with land, spent mucho on renovations, and for 7 years paid all taxes on the property, including a small amount the county insisted was still owed; somehow, the family arguably failed to comply with the fine print in meeting all payment procedures so, after multiple notices/warnings, the county foreclosed. The property was worth hundreds of thousands but auctioned for a pittance. The family got just a fraction of the property’s fair market value. It's true, court precedents long ago gave sweeping powers to local governments to take private property for non-payment of real estate taxes & despite the US constitution’s bar against them taking private property for public purposes without just compensation. But, even if legally justifiable, you’d think the Isabella County officials would have moved heaven & earth to resolve this tax mess with the least pain as possible for the family. Did they need the $2K that bad?

Of course not. An ounce of common sense is needed when serving the public. Case in point: Way back when the “Lincoln Sites” in Abe’s hometown of Springfield, Ill were being created, nearly 200 homes surrounding the great president’s family residence needed to be “taken” in order to recreate/preserve history for posterity. Naturally, the longtime residents there feared losing their homesteads unfairly & fought the city’s condemnation lawsuits. The mayor & community development director I worked for knew the city’s taking was indeed for a good public purpose & the prices offered were more than fair. But instead of standing on legal precedents, they wisely met with every concerned single family & carefully explained their public mission as well as how the offered prices were at top FMV as determined by local independent appraisers. Within 10 months, every single suit was settled & construction began without a hitch.

Davd Soul