State owed $147 million in old debts

Monday, Oct. 1, 2001 | 10:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state is owed more than $147.6 million by merchants or individuals who issued bad checks or failed to pay bills or taxes within 60 days, state Controller Kathy Augustine said.

That's more than the $136.3 million in the state's emergency fund, Augustine said Friday as she issued a quarterly report on the state's debt.

Augustine, who has started a campaign to collect the money owed, said the amount past due to the state rose by $1 million in the quarter ending June 30 from the first quarter of the year, which ended March 31.

The report shows the state Department of Taxation is owed nearly $92 million in past due taxes. The department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation overpaid benefits to the jobless by $5.8 million that has not been recovered.

The agency also has failed to collect $6.6 million owed by businesses that have not paid their unemployment insurance premiums, and the state overpaid employees $315,684, only $60,000 of which has been recovered.

Augustine has hired the collection agencies of OSI of Sacramento and Prime Recovery of Chicago to go after many of the delinquent accounts.

She has signed agreements with the state Department of Business and Industry, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Agriculture Department and the Wildlife Division to represent them in collections.

The controller's office will send 6,300 letters to those who have stiffed the Department of Motor Vehicles to the tune of $1.2 million. With penalties, those people or businesses owed $3.4 million to the state, Augustine said.

Augustine has been pressing the Tax Commission to sign an agreement as well, but that agency decided to look into handling collections itself.

David Pursell, executive director of the state Tax Department, said the commission would meet Oct. 29 to consider the issue.