Harrison County Sheriff Robert G. Matheny praised Tax Deputies for exceeding $10 million in delinquent personal property tax collections. Matheny implemented an aggressive collection program soon after taking office in 2017.
“It was pointed out to me while seeking office during the 2016 campaign, that enormous amounts of tax monies were delinquent and after 5 years it was falling off the books, per West Virginia State Tax Code. “I remember seeing the report from the first month after implementing the program, and it indicated just under six thousand dollars collected, and we were happy with that since we had nothing to compare it to”.
“I’ve really enjoyed observing the process,” the Sheriff said. The amounts range from as little as $20 and go as high as $210,000.00. The thing that most impresses me is the fact that it’s all been so civil, the taxpayers have responded respectfully and complied without legal action. In most cases it’s been an oversight by the taxpayer, many times they actually thanked us. Truly it’s not the amount collected but what it says. Sometimes folks struggle to pay what they owe, and with efforts on our part we can help them become current. We can’t stop here, much more needs done, we will continue this pursuit going forward.
Where does this extra income go? The bulk goes directly to our schools (over 60%) which allows the Board of Education to fund our PRO program that places Law Enforcement Officers & Deputies in our schools, with our students, staff and teachers.
Former Superintendent of schools, Dr. Mark Manchin acknowledged Sheriff Matheny and his staff in 2019 stating that the true winners were the students. Matheny has issued Sheriff citation awards to the Tax Deputies for their exceptional effort on this initiative. Local Cities and towns have seen increases in their monthly municipal current and levy incomes, additionally the County Commission also shares in the additional income.