BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Publishing LLC, which owns The Times Record, is expected to pay more than $260,000 in unpaid property taxes to the town by June of this year, according to Town Manager Gary Brown.
During Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Brown gave the council an update on the status of the company’s unpaid taxes, which total $265,517.66.
Emails between Brown and The Times Record publisher Chris Miles indicate that the company’s last payment was made in August 2011 and that a wire payment expected in January was not paid.
Brown said he spoke with Miles on Monday afternoon and learned two “significant pieces of information” about the company and that Brunswick Publishing LLC plans to pay the town by June.
“I did express frustration that payments were going to be made and then nothing happened,” Brown said. “(Miles) said he will provide me written progress reports on the status of financing on the 15th of each month.”
Brown said that the town has secured a lien on The Times Record office property for unpaid taxes in 2010 but that seizing personal property at the business would not be in the town’s best interest.
“We could go secure the personal property that we have an interest in at The Times Record,” Brown said.
Brown said that the method is “ seldom employed” by municipalities because “you would have to effectively take the equipment out of the building and then sell it to get the interest back. The reason that’s not typically done is that you want these businesses to do what they can to stay in business and pay their taxes, and to take away their means of business would be self-defeating for our purposes.”
According to tax statements from the town dated March 1, the company currently owes $107,659.46 in personal property taxes.
Brown said that liens on the property have not matured to foreclosure and would not do so for another year, should the tax bills continue to go unpaid.
Brown said that payments related to a tax increment financing agreement with the company’s former owner will not be made as long as the property taxes are unpaid.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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