AUGUSTA, Ga. - There's more than one million dollars of unpaid property taxes in Augusta-Richmond County.

Tax Commissioner Steven Kendrick says his office is taking an aggressive approach to collect the money owed to the city.

Documents from the Richmond County Tax Commissioner's office show year after year some homeowners aren't paying their property taxes.

“Sometimes it's negligence, people's ability to pay, what's happened in their lives, job loss, medical issues,” said Steven Kendrick, Tax Commissioner.

Every year, about mid-November, Steven Kendrick says his office gets a list of all the people who haven't paid up and he starts the legal process to collect.

“What they do previously is start the sales in August. They'll get down to the homes in August. Then it's time to start over,” said Kendrick.

But this process only allowed them to collect some of the larger debts owed to the county. Kendrick says they are starting the process early so they can start collecting on some of the smaller delinquent taxes before the end of the year.

Those dollars add up. Take this homeowner records show he hasn't paid taxes for the last 6 years. He now owes almost $23,000 in property tax.

As we take on a more aggressive approach in collection, it will allow the county to have a smaller hole.

$1.1 Million dollars is owed to Richmond County in property taxes. It's money, if collected will help fill a large hole in the county's and school district's budgets.

Kendrick says they will also start a new effort to collect $2.5 million in mobile home taxes. That's expected to start next January.

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