The Indiana Senate is on board with a Region lawmaker's plan to weed out ineligible bidders at tax sales in Lake County and across the state.
State Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, on Tuesday won unanimous chamber approval for Senate Bill 28, which now goes to the House.
It prohibits individuals who owe tax debts from bidding on properties at county tax sales and also bars ineligible bidders from hiding behind a business or corporate entity to acquire tax sale properties.
“What this bill is really striving at is to get good players in there that want to buy the properties for the right reasons,” Niemeyer said.
“It cleans up some language that needs to be cleaned up, and it’s going to make a big difference in the big counties, especially one of the counties that I represent — Lake County.”
Lake County and other Indiana local governments regularly auction properties whose owners are behind on tax payments to recoup otherwise lost revenue and potentially enable winning bidders to take ownership of the properties.
But each year people who already are behind on their taxes attempt to game the system, especially in Lake County, leading to thousands of properties constantly churning through tax sale after tax sale due to still unpaid taxes.
“Basically what this bill does is it tries to eliminate the cheats,” said state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago.
The measure provides that bidders who knowingly provide false information during the tax sale process can be charged with a level 6 felony, punishable by up to two-and-a-half years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
© Copyright 2024, nwitimes.com, Munster, IN