By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — Almost a half million dollar in property taxes from previous years is the debt the Town of Naples has been carrying.

On the horizon, the town will make residents aware that they owe and there will be an effort to collect those back taxes.

“I have taken a look at our tax situation, and I want to report that the Town of Naples is owed $428,645 in back taxes,” according to Naples Town Manager Jason Rogers.

That amount includes both real estate taxes and the personal property tax, also referred to as the business tax.

“I have directed the town tax collector to initiate a proactive and focused collection campaign,” Rogers said. “The purpose of this effort is to allow home and property owners to come current on back taxes before moving to more costly collections options.”

Rogers revealed that $428,645 is owed in the back taxes during the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday. 

“That is not an insignificant amount because at the end of the year, the county doesn’t care whether or not we’ve collected those taxes. We still owe our total bill. So that means the remainder of the community is footing the bill on those real estate taxes,” he said.

He explained what it means to commence a back-tax collection campaign.

“The tax collector will be reaching out to those people who owe taxes with a letter because it is very possible they aren’t aware they owe taxes,” Rogers said.

He explained why people might not know about their past tax bill.

“Folks in Naples get the current year tax bill. That’s it. They don’t get a history. All they see is the current year,” he said.

Sometimes, people show up at the town hall to pay the bi-annual bill, and discover more is owed from past years, he said.

“I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to the community members of Naples. We are going to assume they aren’t aware they owe back taxes,” he said.

“It is in the best interest of the town if we can identify back owed taxes, and those taxes get paid directly because the other avenues of collection and getting lawyers involved are way too expensive. It is taxpayer dollars that go into the recovery efforts so I would much rather work with the individuals,” he said.

Rogers plans to report back to the board in a month. Then, he will provide monthly updates on the campaign to collect back taxes.

At the Nov. 27 meeting, Selectman Colin Brackett had asked for a number on the amount of back taxes owed to the town.

Rogers encouraged people to double-check with town instead of waiting for letter to come in the mail.

“I would ask residents of Naples to call or visit the town offices to ensure they are current on taxes,” he said.