10/27/2017

Ads available to promote delinquent tax lists

By Dennis Hetzel, Executive Director

ONMA members are urged to use ads we are offering to promote publication of delinquent tax lists.

The ads are easy to customize by adding the publication date and name or logo of your newspaper. They’re available to you in standard print and digital formats by clicking here.  Because of the high reader interest in these lists, these ads also can promote single-copy sales.

It’s particularly important right now to remind not only the public but also elected officials of the value of these public notices. As many of you know, the Legislature may consider a proposal to remove the requirement in state law to publish these lists.  ONMA believes that these lists cause many delinquent taxpayers to “pay up,” and that local newspapers are a far-superior place for these public notices than dozens of government websites that do not reach nearly as large an audience.

We have had feedback from a number of publishers that this is exactly what happens in many communities: Thanks to the publication, counties collect needed revenue and the lists shrink in size, sometimes dramatically, between the first and second publication of the lists. The public also has a general interest in seeing these notices.

As recently as 2011, the ONMA agreed to changes in the law to save publication expenses for local government.  These notices can publish as inserts instead of as display ads, the cost of the second publication of the list can’t exceed 75 percent of the cost of the first and local officials can add an additional fee to the tax bill to offset costs.

We will keep you posted on our efforts. In the meantime, if you publish these lists, please consider using the ads. Of course, you also can do your own promotion as well as news coverage of the publication of the delinquent tax lists. We thank Lori Figurski and her team at Ogden Newspapers in Martins Ferry for creating these promo ads for our members to utilize.