City of Mount Vernon Comptroller gives tax presentation at Board of Education meeting

City of Mount Vernon Comptroller Dr. Darren Morton presented at the Mount Vernon Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, to discuss the process of tax collection, the amount of unpaid taxes owed to the Mount Vernon City School District, and the schedule for when the District will receive the funds.

Click here to view the full presentation.

Because unpaid taxes were not paid to the District at the end of the two-year enforcement window for the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, the District was owed $11.7 million in unpaid taxes for those years. This occurred during the previous administration of the City of Mount Vernon. The City and the District agreed on a settlement for $2.1 million of statutory interest and a $450,000 per month payment plan. The current outstanding debt for those years is $3 million, and it will be paid in full by September 2025. 

The effect of unpaid taxes, on an already financially strained District, has created a growing difficulty to operate within the budget. Because the District has less funds available than expected each year, with more money owed from previous years, this creates an operating deficit that will continue growing until the District is able to be made whole. One of the options that the District has is raising the tax levy, which will increase revenue but won’t address the issue of unpaid taxes. 

Since taxes are still unpaid, only $2.4 million of the $10.8 million received by the District was collected from taxpayers. The remainder has been paid out of the City’s operating fund, creating a shortfall in reserves for both the City and District.

The remainder of unpaid taxes owed to the District for the 2020-2021 through 2023-2024 school years is $17.5 million. 

• 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years: $7.7 million outstanding balance due in May 2025
• 2022-2023 school year: $4.2 million outstanding balance due in February 2026.
• 2023-2024 school year: $5.6 million outstanding balance due in December 2026.

As taxes are not paid, this has created a strain on the City and District to operate without proper funding. The District is partnering with the City to ensure that outstanding taxes are collected and delivered on the agreed upon dates. 

The City currently does not have the cash to continue delivering unpaid taxes that the District is owed. This will challenge the District’s finances further, as it will increase the deficit in the budget if these taxes are not paid. 

The City will be proceeding with a tax lien sale in order to address financial concerns. The list of delinquent taxes was issued in December 2024, and a tax lien sale is planned for the fourth Tuesday in June. There are over 600 parcels in arrears, meaning that there are many individual tax bills that have been unpaid.