Unbelievably, the media gives Armond Budish a complete pass.  Is Budish a complete simpleton surrounded by morons?  I think so - I am reprinting article from this past week and last year in entirety to show you how Clevelanddotcom is complicit in allowing this insanity to continue.  WE have no tax base to support services in Cuyahoga County.  This is insanity.

Cuyahoga County plans to hire firm to collect delinquent property taxes  

By Karen Farkas June 13, 2017

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County plans to hire a firm to collect delinquent residential and commercial property taxes.

Douglass & Associates Co. of Cleveland will receive fees based on how much it collects, up to $2.2 million, according to the resolution introduced Tuesday at County Council. The issue was referred to the finance committee.

Currently 37,975 of the 550,000 residential and commercial properties in the county are delinquent on taxes, officials said.

Property tax delinquencies climbed from $89 million in 2008 to $358 million this year.

The mounting pile of unpaid taxes -- which keeps millions of dollars from local municipalities and school districts annually -- is despite that the county regularly sells delinquent tax liens to a private company, which pays the county for the right to collect the back taxes.

Last October the county sold $6 million in liens on 619 tax-delinquent properties to Tax Ease Ohio LLC.

In May 2016 the county announced increased efforts to collect unpaid property taxes. Those efforts included establishing a tax delinquency response unit to identify at-risk parcels and work with the owners to develop payment plans.

The county sends invoices and letters but doesn't have the resources to do more. Douglass, a collection service agent, will make direct contact with the property owner and either collect the amount due or set up a payment plan.

The proposed agreement with Douglass is an amendment to a contract with the firm, which was hired in 2016 to collect delinquent property taxes and economic development loans. The company was to receive fees based on how much it collects, up to $480,000, from July 2016 to July 2018.

The company is paid a portion of the taxes the county receives.

Approximately 12,500 delinquent parcels were referred in 2016, the county said.

The length of the contract will not change but the company will seek repayments from more delinquent property owners.

"Based on the first part of the contract Douglass is doing a good job," county spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said. "The treasurer estimated out through the end of the contract about how much would be needed if it keeps up this pace."

The process differs from selling tax liens.

Counties are allowed to bundle and sell tax liens, or the legal right to collect a debt, to outside investors after a property owner has failed to pay taxes for more than one year.

Counties sell liens to instantly collect on the full value of owed taxes. Investors buy the liens because they make money by tacking on interest rates of up to 18 percent. The lien buyers can foreclose on homes if the property owners don't pay their debts.

Cuyahoga County hires firm to collect delinquent property taxes

By Karen Farkas Dec 6, 2016

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County has hired a firm to collect delinquent property taxes and economic development loans.

Douglass & Associates Co. of Cleveland will receive a fee based on how much it collects, up to $480,000, from July 2016 to July 2018, under a contract approved by the county board of control on Monday.

It is the first time a firm has been sought to collect such taxes, said county spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan. The company will only be paid from revenue the county receives.

The contract is in addition to selling $6 million in property tax liens on 619 tax-delinquent properties to Tax Ease Ohio LLC in Ohio.

Residential property tax delinquencies were $252 million in May. In 2015 officials said the county was owed $2.3 million in delinquent loans to entrepreneurs from 2005 to 2008.

What has the county done?

• Established a tax delinquency response unit to identify at-risk parcels and work with the owners to develop payment plans.
• Hired more than 10 employees in the prosecutor's office to foreclose on abandoned properties.
• Is working with the Ohio Attorney General's Office to collect delinquent development loans. Madigan said the state did not have the capacity to collect a large number of delinquencies.