PARADE INSIDE OPINION, 4A MAGAZINE SPORTS, 1B WEATHER INSIDE Partly cloudy TODAY'S and hot. DAILY Richmond alum Town should tackle JOURNAL HIGH: 97 100% recycled LOW: 72 reaches milestone bad debt crisis newsprint 7 DAYS LEFT TO PURCHASE TICKETS 910-205-8800 www.rockinghamspeedway.com June 27-28, 2009 Weekender $1.00 State Bad tax debt reports tops $200,000 laptops for small town missing Olivia Webb Richmond County Daily Journal Counties collect Philip D. Brown Ten years’ worth of delinquent Richmond County Daily Journal municipal taxes, if collected, in some locations Computer equipment could have already bought the purchased with tax money Town of Dobbins Heights that Olivia Webb $120,000 garbage truck they Richmond County Daily Journal for an after school program were looking for from Golden run by a former chairman LEAF. When property tax col- of the Rockingham Housing And paid the $49,500 for lection becomes a problem Authority board is missing. construction for some municipalities, the When the program closed, of new council state recommends they go the state chambers at to a higher power for help: Department town hall. The county. of Public If collected, On May 21, the Town of Instruction there would be Dobbins Heights received a took posses- $30,000 left letter from the Department sion of 21st over to fund a of the State Treasurer con- Century 25th anniversa- cerning municipal collection Learning ry celebration. Blue of real estate and property Program With a cur- taxes. According to Sharon equipment rent ad valorem tax collection Edmundson, author of the Voorhees rate of 61 percent, the town has letter and director of the and records department’s fiscal man- at Falling racked up a total of $202,638.44 in unpaid taxes and interest agement section, Dobbins Creek Park in Heights collected only 63.64 Rockingham. since 1998. “That is an abnormally low percent of the ad valorem The state taxes that it levied for the has since collection rate,” said Ellis Hankins, Executive Director of 2007-2008 fiscal year, which reported the North Carolina League of is significantly less than the several thou- Municipalities. “It is unusual. If statewide average of 97 per- sand dollars the collection rate were where cent. worth of com- Stanback it should be, which means well This year’s collection rate puter equip- over 95 percent, the property was 61 percent. ment is missing, according tax rate could be lower.” “If you have not yet con- to Rockingham Police Chief The list of delinquent taxpay- solidated you tax billing Robert Voorhees. TOM MACCALLUM/DAILY JOURNAL er names folds into a stack of and collection functions Voorhees said some of the Joey Bennett has been director of the Cole Auditorium since Oct. paper a half-inch thick. Banks, with Richmond County, we items in question include 2008 after being the assistant since 2001 while working on college mortgage companies and unset- urge you to consider the laptop computers and video degrees with the assistance of scholarships from the Cole Foundation tled estates make up a big chunk possibility carefully,” wrote equipment. He also says in Scholarship program. of it. So do individuals who, hav- Edmundson. “Because the the letter the federal Office ing failed to pay year after year, county is required by law of Inspector General for the and now owe hundreds or even to collect the municipality’s Department of Education thousands of dollars. motor vehicle property tax will be joining his inquiry The annual amount of unpaid levy, they may be receptive taxes has also steadily climbed. to assuming responsibility because federal money was FOUNDATION HELPS for the other ad valorem used. In 1999, the total was $4,866. The 21st Century pro- By 2004 it hit $12,932. In 2007 the bad debt totaled $20,770 COLLECT gram was created by Bruce CONTINUED ON PAGE 5A Stanback, a former chair- and last year it topped $30,746. man of the RHA board and DREAMS COME TRUE Even the trivial amounts add up. Pepsi Cola Bottling Company current chairman of the still owes Dobbins Heights $1.90 don’t collect any money then Richmond County School Tom MacCallum Greenville. (interest included) from 2004. you’ve just incurred another Board. Richmond County Daily Journal Joey Bennett last year was named Councilman Curtis Ratliff hasn’t cost,” said Mayor Antonio Blue. Stanback was terminated made a payment on one par- Richmond County incurred a For many Richmond County young peo- director of the Cole Auditorium. He from his position as 21st obtained a master’s degree ticular parcel since 1999, when cost to advertise those names Century program director ple, Cole Foundation Scholarships his total bill amount was $6.90. on April 29 - and Blue was listed have meant obtaining college in administration with a Cole in May because state law Scholarship while being assistant Today it is $7.75 — but he owes as behind on his county taxes. prohibits housing authority degrees with less stress about a total of $100.29 combined in According to him, his county obtaining the finances to do so. director there. board members from work- In 1990, the Cole Foundation back municipal taxes on the taxes are now paid. Blue isn’t ing for the authority for a “The Cole Foundation property for the past 10 years. named on the Dobbins Heights Scholarships over the past 19 Scholarship program presented period of one year after they 21 scholarships for a total of State law says municipal gov- bad debt list obtained by the award cycles has assisted some ernments must advertise the Daily Journal. leave office. 467 students with close to $2 mil- $14,600. Stanback could not be names of those who fail to pay State law requires that all lion in scholarships, said Charles Scholarships increase their taxes on time. Other munic- governmental taxing authorities reached for comment about B. Deane Jr., chairman of the the missing equipment. Bream In 2009, 80 new and renewed ipal governments in Richmond advertise the names of delin- scholarship committee. County do advertise and have quent taxpayers. But, according The Office of Inspector Two such recipients are now newly scholarships totaled $329,250 with 26 of the scholarships being new. a tax collect rate of between 96 to Hankins, there’s no penalty General for the U.S. involved in their chosen careers. for not advertising. At least not Department of Housing and and 98 percent. Dr. John David Bream of Rockingham Dobbins Heights doesn’t. that he knows of. is now engaged in his medical residency FOUNDATION “It costs money to adver- LAPTOPS at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in CONTINUED ON PAGE 3A tise in the paper, and if you DEBT CONTINUED ON PAGE 8A CONTINUED ON PAGE 3A County bucks state trend, unemployment drops AlwaysAlways Here.Here. Philip D. Brown BE&K is the construction company Carolina, we are still experiencing Always Ready. Richmond County Daily Journal that has been awarded a contract with job losses in many sectors, this (is) Always Ready. Richmond County was one of only 16 Progress Energy to build the $600 mil- also being seen across the country,” Open 24 hours a day, seven days a counties in North Carolina to see its lion Richmond County Energy Complex ESC Chairman Moses Carey said in week, our experienced staff is always unemployment rate drop in May. off Airport Road. the release. “We continue to focus our here to deliver comprehensive and The county’s jobless rate declined Progress Spokesman Mike Hughes efforts on assisting customers in finding compassionate care to patients and four-tenths of a percentage point to 14.2 confirmed site preparation is underway work by matching them with employers their families. Our technologically percent, even as the statewide number on the project, and it is on schedule. At and providing unemployment insurance, advanced equipment and procedures went up the same amount to 11.1 per- its peak, the work is expected to employ which helps stabilize communities as help to make our patients feel a little cent. 500 people. workers go through a transition.” more at ease during difficult times. In addition to the new employers, “The activity is picking up, people are North Carolina shed about 4,000 gov- We’re always ready to accommodate Carpenter pointed out the fact Perdue, starting to hire,” said ESC Local Office ernment jobs and 3,800 manufacturing a full range of healthcare needs, from Cascades and von Drehle continue to Manager Judy Carpenter. “Our numbers jobs in the month of May, which was urgent care to rehabilitation. went down a little bit, and that helps. take applications and stay active in the slightly offset by the creation of 2,900, Every point helps.” employment market. typically lower-paying jobs in the leisure Behavioral Health Family Medicine Internal Medicine Rehabilitation She said much of the positive change North Carolina is leaking jobs at a and hospitality sector. Cardiology Gastroenterology Laparoscopic Surgery Urology in the local job market can be attrib- slightly slower pace than the country as Richmond’s neighbor Scotland County Dialysis General Surgery Psychiatry Vascular Surgery uted to Big Rock Sports and BE&K a whole, according to a release from the maintained the distinction of the county Emergency Medicine Gynecology Pulmonology Wound Center Construction beginning to take on ESC of North Carolina. It reported the with the highest unemployment rate 1000 West Hamlet Ave. employees. nation as a whole lost .5 percent of its at 17.2 percent. This figure is actually Big Rock Sports was announced jobs in May.