Following its usual practice, the Vienna Town Council on Aug. 26 voted 6-1 to publish a list of property owners who are delinquent in paying their real-estate taxes.
But it wasn’t unanimous.
Town staff provided Council members with a list of balances that were due as of Aug. 7. Those 10 properties owed a total of $44,987, an increase of $9,534 from a year earlier.
Officials attributed much of that overage to three properties on the list, which have been delinquent in their payments since before 2020. The town has placed liens on those properties, which is standard practice when bills are owed for two or more years.
After updating the list for payments made as of Aug. 26, Vienna officials will publish it in the Washington Times as well as on the town’s Website.
The town for years has collected at least 99 percent of delinquent taxes, and the collection rate in fiscal 2024 was 99.9 percent.
The Council also agreed Aug. 26 to write off 21 bills owing less than $5 apiece this year, which amounted to a total of $40.01.
State law requires the town’s treasurer (Finance Director Marion Serfass) to report the tax-delinquency list to the Council, which then has the option of publishing it, said Town Attorney Steven Briglia, who added that the list technically is published when it becomes part of the Council’s record.
Vienna officials do not wish to embarrass the offending property owners, but publish the list as a matter of transparency to show the public the town government is taking steps to collect taxes owed, Briglia said.
Council member Sandra Allen cast the lone nay vote against publishing the list, saying the amounts owed were a pittance compared with the millions being spent on various town projects and voicing concern about the latter issue.
“It is not a good economic time to be investing in pet projects,” she said. “This shows how out of touch our governments are with our residents.”
But some other Council members said they considered publishing the list to be a duty and that they did not wish to see bad behavior rewarded.
Council member Roy Baldwin said he had driven past some of the residences on the list.
“One theme among them is they’re all larger than my house,” he sa
