Newton County is joining with other Mississippi counties under a new debt set-off program under the Mississippi Association of Supervisors that would allow them to garnish residents’ state tax returns to collect outstanding fines.
In a Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday, the board voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with MAS to participate in the debt set-off program and send overdue accounts to the state Department of Revenue for collection.
“We’ve been working with the municipalities trying to get in the queue because, if I understand the statute, the enabling legislation, whoever gets in their first gets the first bite of the apple,” County Attorney Jason Mangum said. “Don’t nobody know how it’s going to work, but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to go ahead and get the process rolling.”
Mangum said if the county wants to collect old fines from state tax returns, it doesn’t have a choice on participating because the bill passed by the legislature mandates counties go through their “member organization.” For Newton County, the member organization is MAS.
While the board had discussed the program at its Oct. 7 meeting, Board President Charles Godwin said several issues were brought up, including the time frame. According to the agreement, he said, the county would need to appoint a contact person, send letters to residents with outstanding fines and have the debts, along with social security number for the account holders, to MAS by Dec. 15
“Our hang-up was the time limit,” he said.
Mangum, however, said he had that figured out. The legislation allows counties to garnish tax returns for both solid waste and justice court fines. While it would indeed be difficult to get enough information together to submit solid waste information in time for this year’s deadline, he said Justice Court Clerk Sue Addy could easily have a portion of the court’s outstanding debt ready to submit by the deadline.
Of course, other counties and municipalities, including the Town of Decatur, have already joined the program. As the program is operated on a first-come-first-serve basis, it’s possible the county won’t be able to collect anything this year. However, Mangum said, this is an ongoing program. By joining now and working to get the information collected and packaged according the program guidelines, Newton County will be in a good position for collecting on 2021 tax returns.
As dictated by the legislation, Newton County will begin sending letters to residents who have outstanding fines, warning them their tax return may be garnished to collect overdue amounts. Mangum said residents who receive a letter are encouraged to come pay their debts before the accounts are submitted.
