Coahoma County has many needs and limited dollars to solve its problems, so collecting court fines, garbage fees and delinquent taxes is once again being eyed as a revenue source.
The Board of Supervisors for the third time in as many months is looking for a way to collect fines, fees and delinquent taxes but also for the third time has failed to put anything concrete into action.
It has been estimated that there are over $1.5 million in unpaid Justice Court fines on the books in Coahoma County and another $125,000 in unpaid garbage fees. The county is owed 323,798.33 in unpaid taxes and there is an additional $193,116.35 in unpaid school taxes owed.
“We all agree we need that money and need to collect it,” said Dist. 3 Supervisor Derrell Washington. “We need to decide if we are going to do it or are we going to hire someone or appoint someone.”
The county has a collection firm that sends letters and calls those with unpaid fines, but those prompts are often ignored. A ruling in 2018 by state courts says you can revoke a driver’s license for failure to pay a fine.
To balance Coahoma County’s budget this fall, supervisors implemented a 3-percent across-the-board cut in all departments. The county is also looking at a Justice Center construction project that has gone over budget and roads and bridges across the county that need fixing.
House Bill 991 authorizes counties to collect a debt owed to the county by intercepting a debtor’s state income tax return and Coahoma County Supervisors were told of the new law and program at their September meeting. Supervisors have said in both November and December they want to establish their own program.
The City of Clarksdale has voted in October to take part in the program under the auspices of the Mississippi Municipal league. Clarksdale has $1.8 million on the books in unpaid fines and fees.
Board President and Dist. 4 Supervisor Johnny Newson has said he was concerned the program might require the county to hire a new employee to manage the program. Newson said people needed to pay their fines but he didn’t want to impose a burden on those who can’t pay.
The program does not take a person’s wages, but rather refunds from the Mississippi Department of Revenue.
The board also voiced concerns that the Mississippi Association of Supervisors and Mississippi Department of Revenue takes 25-percent of the money collected as part of their fees for providing the information on tax refunds to the counties.
The law requires the county to first sign an agreement with the Mississippi Association of Supervisors and designate a Debt Setoff Program Coordinator.
The program coordinator must then attend training on implementing the program for the county and state.
The bill requires the county to identify those who are getting a refund from a list provided by the state and match them with the names of those who owe fines to the county. The tax refund is then routed to the Debt Setoff Program, and after it is confirmed the person owing the fine and the person getting the refund are the same, the county gets their portion of the income tax refund.
How it works
The county would contact the Mississippi Department of Revenue and submit the debt owed for collection. The county, through the Debt Setoff Program Coordinator, would send written notice of the intent to the debtor to garnish part or all of their refund. The debtor is told a 25 percent collection assistance fee will be assessed if they don’t pay immediately.
The debtor would have 30 days to contest the garnishment and receive a hearing in front a justice court judge with appeals made to the county circuit court.
Other counties and cities that have taken part in this program have found the threat of garnishing a tax refund often prompts people who owe fines to go ahead and pay the court.
“I think the first thing we should do is make people aware they owe a fine and we are seeking to collect it,” said Dist. 1 Supervisor Paul Pearson. “We need to send them a letter from our attorney saying what we plan to do. I think you will be surprised at how many people will come in and pay up.”
Washington said if someone is not working, they aren’t paying taxes and there is no state income tax refund.
“We need to name someone and make them responsible for going to the tax collector, Justice Court and the sheriff and make sure this money is paid,” said Washington. “But it’s not going to happen until we named someone to do it.”
The county could also use this process to collect unpaid garbage fees.
HB 991 doesn’t directly mention a debt owed a county-owned rural hospital, like Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale, but the law doesn’t exclude debts paid to them either.
Already, the DOR can garnish state income tax refunds to recover:
• Unpaid child support.
• Federal taxes or fees owed.
• Unpaid student loans (state government loans only).
• Community college unpaid fees or other debts.
Mississippi is one of six states that does not suspend, revoke, or not allow driver's license renewal for failure to pay fines and fees.
The state does allow Justice Court Judges and Circuit Court Judges to issue bench warrants for failure to pay fines assessed by those courts. Once the bench warrant is issued, and a driver is once again pulled over for a traffic infraction, they can be arrested for failure to pay a fine and carried to jail to await a hearing in front of the judge who issued the bench warrant.
