A continuing crackdown in Berrien County has already revealed 415-alleged property tax cheats.

Berrien County officials suspected that a lot of second home owners were stretching the truth to try and shrink their tax bills. Those suspicions appear to be confirmed by the latest statistics.

“What we have found is, numerous people who were claiming a homestead in the State of Illinois, also were claiming the homestead here in Berrien County,” said Berrien County Treasurer Bret Witkowski.

Homeowners in the State of Michigan pay 18-mils less than do owners of second homes. That’s the equivalent of 18-hundred dollars for every 100-thousand dollars of taxable assessed value. All of that money goes to fund schools in Michigan.

The bogus homestead problem was most prevalent in New Buffalo Township where better than one in every three properties studied revealed a bogus homestead claim. There a total of 252 properties have been investigated, resulting in the denial of 99-separate homestead claims.

“If someone has claimed a homestead and didn’t deserve it for 15 years, the law does not allow us to go back, we can only go back three years,” said Witkowski. “State of Florida is ten years, and they prosecute.”

All Berrien County wants to do is collect the cash it can in its continuing efforts to separate the real residents from the rogues.

Thus far, Berrien County has identified 415-suspected bogus homestead claims, and the property owners have been billed $1.7 million in back taxes.

The county has already collected $770-thousand dollars and the program has earned $176,000 in interest. That puts the total cash reclaimed near the one million dollar mark ($942,298.00).

Witkowski feels when the investigation is over, the county will have identified about $3 million in back taxes owed. “It’s only fair for everybody else, the 95-percent which are doing everything the right way.”