Budget Squeeze Causes County To Stop Publishing Required Legal Notice Of Local Properties With Delinquent Real Estate Taxes

In Fremont, Ohio, the Toledo Blade reports:

• Sandusky County Auditor Bill Farrell expressed frustration yesterday, a day after county commissioners told him he must cut $102,000 from his department's budget. [...] Included in those cuts is $30,000 the county pays in October to publish the names of residents with delinquent land tax notices(1) in the Fremont News-Messenger newspaper. Mr. Farrell said the notice is required by state law, but [county commission president Brad] Smith said the price of the annual four-page spread is too expensive and "ridiculous."

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• Mr. Smith said rather than pay the money to put the information in the newspaper, the county can post the notice on its Web site. "If someone wants to view it, it can be readily available," he said.

For more, see Sandusky County auditor told to cut $102,000 from budget.

(1) The quality of tax titles purchased at county delinquent tax auctions are notoriously dubious as it is. For the county to disregard the required legal process for advertising delinquent taxes will make buying tax titles a worse crap shoot than it already is.