Majority Whip Hanks on lien trust activities and revenue shortfall from pause
Hanks asks whether the lien sale pause has impacted the current tax lien trust and if the city will make up the revenue shortfall. Commissioner Lee says existing liens in the trust are unaffected, and that behavior changes from enforcement take time to appear in collections data.
So has this pause impacted activities of the current tax lien trusts?
For the current tax lien, no.
The current tax lien, the current liens in the trust right now are subject to the previous contracts and the authority has not been impacted by the pause in the lien sale for this year.
But with that said, we're reviewing the entire enforcement ecosystem right now, including previously sold liens as part of our review.
So that leads me to my next question.
So with the postponement, do you believe that we'll make up that revenue shortfall next year?
We as an administration really need time to ensure that we're enforcing these taxes, property charges and water bills in an equitable and sustainable way that's aligned with the mayor's vision.
Generally, changing behavior from taxpayers are due to
enforcement and it takes time to show up in our collections data, but we'll monitor the situation and keep working with the budget office and the city council throughout the process and keep everyone abreast of any changes in valuation that we might see.
Thank you.