LIMA — Allen County will hire an outside attorney to try to collect outstanding property taxes owed by the USA Synthetic Fuel Corp., which declared bankruptcy in March.
County commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday to enter into a contract with Grant Shipley as counsel regarding USA Synthetic Fuel’s bankruptcy sale.
“There’s been a bankruptcy filing, and as part of that filing, they’re trying to have the tax lien dismissed,” commissioner Jay Begg said. “We have a difference of opinion between the prosecutor and their attorneys as to whether that’s allowable or not.”
USA Synthetic Fuel was the most recent company behind the long-stalled Lima Energy project. A group of investors from Third Eye Capital said in August they’d take over the project to protect their investment.
According to Begg, USA Synthetic Fuel owes $148,000 in back taxes to the county, which collects property taxes.
“The prosecutor’s office doesn’t deal with bankruptcies very often, so we decided to hire an outside expert to represent the county,” he said. “The attorney said it would take $1,500 to give his opinion on this after he looked into it.”
Property taxes support a variety of entities, Begg said, and if collected, the taxes owed by USA Synthetic Fuels would be distributed accordingly.
“About half of that would go to projects in the city, such as the city schools, and the other half would be distributed as is to the county, city, park district, etc.,” he said.
According to Tony Geiger, law director for the city of Lima, no similar debt situation exists between USA Synthetic Fuel and the city.
“The city had engaged with the new owners as part of the bankruptcy, with respect to contract rights and the provision of water, but the city does not have any taxation issues similar to what the county has,” he said. “The city’s interest was contractual and not tax-related, whereas the county’s real estate taxes are a different animal.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
