More than $325,000 is being distributed to every municipality, school district, and Bucks County government itself, announced Bucks County Treasurer Kris Ballerini.
The distribution of funds is the result of an investigation initiated after Ballerini took office in early 2020.
After taking over the treasurer’s office, Ballerini discovered two bank accounts with more than $600,000 that had been untouched for roughly 15 years.
“The accounts were funds from tax sale distributions that prior department heads had not properly or timely escheated per Pennsylvania laws,” Ballerini explained.
Part of this money was entangled in legal disputes.
Ballerini worked with attorney Alexander Glassman from Rudolph Clarke to track down rightful owners of the funds dating back to 2013.
“I spent days in the warehouse during my first term trying to reconstruct, reconcile and identify the parcels and amounts for tax sale distribution,” Ballerini said. “The initial deposit for $247,025.75 was made into an account on May 12, 2003. In the memo section of the check it says, ‘holding account’. A second account was opened on April 10, 2003, with ‘94-02 Tax Sale’ in the memo section.”
Following identification and verification, the funds were distributed to their rightful owners.
Ballerini and attorney Alexander Glassman, of the firm Rudolph Clarke, sought court permission, while working with the Bucks County Law Department, to give the remaining funds back to taxpayers according to the Real Estate Tax Sale Law, which allows funds to be returned to the taxing authorities after three years.
The Bucks County Court of Common Pleas approved the plan by the treasurer.
After publicly advertising the list of funds for 60 days, $326,458.75 is in the process of being returned to the county government and each municipality and school district in Bucks County.
Ballerini said her office used the millage rate from 2021 to divide the amount equitably.
Ballerini has presented checks to the Bristol Township School District for $24,097 and $20,391 to the Pennsbury School District over the past week.
Pennsbury Superintendent Dr. Thomas Smith celebrated the check for the county treasurer, calling it “one of the best phone calls I got this summer.”
“In the treasury, we’re aggressively protecting the financial interests of the citizens of Bucks County,” said Ballerini, a Democrat. “In addition to making sure all money is accounted for, we’re now utilizing the most up-to-date financial technology, combined with prudent cash management, thereby achieving maximum return on all county fund balances.”
Ballerini joked at the Pennsbury School Board meeting that she felt like Oprah, citing her 2004 car giveaway, handing out checks to governments.
The treasurer said the funds being returned to local governments can be spent however officials believe is best.
The Bucks County Treasurer’s Office is tasked with the collection, investment, disbursement, and reconciliation of all county funds, managing over 64 bank and financial statements, collecting some taxes, and issuing numerous licenses ranging from bingo to hunting.
Ballerini, a former Upper Makefield Township supervisor, won the job of treasurer in the 2019 election and was reelected in 2023.
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