The Office of the Secretary of State manages and sells land forfeited to the state for non-payment of local property taxes. For those sixty-nine counties for which the Secretary of State has current computer records, the number of land tracts available for sale totals 7,776. Although the office advertises individual parcels and maintains lists of such properties accessible to the public, the office does not aggressively market the lands; does not have a formal procedure to define how long the office works with delinquent owners before offering lands to the highest bidders; and, while offering certain “blighted” properties at a reduced price, the office has not defined the term “blighted.”
Counties have been lax in reporting market values and record owners of such lands, and no state agency regularly inspects these lands for trespass or waste. While many persons have disputed the revenue-generating capacity of tax-forfeited land sales, the Secretary of State estimates that approximately $500,000 per year (up to a cumulative total of $5 million) in new revenue could be generated, based on parcel values of $13 million.
The Secretary of State should strengthen sales and management of public lands and consider privatizing the function to a real estate firm, or the Legislature could, by statute, allow lands to be sold or managed by the counties.
For a paper copy of this report, contact PEER by telephone at 601-359-1226 or by e-mail at reports@peer.ms.gov.