The collapse of DESA Heating left its mark on this year’s city and county property tax delinquencies. The bankrupt firm heads the list of debtors, owing $108,898.39 to Bowling Green and Warren County, according to the rolls published recently by local governments.

The heater manufacturer shut down suddenly last fall when it couldn’t make loan payments, but it’s not alone in being unable to make ends meet last year. A dozen businesses - and/or their individual owners - owe the city and county combined more than $10,000 each, according to the tax delinquency rosters accepted last week by Warren Fiscal Court and published April 17 by the city. Many of the largest debtors were developers or land companies.

A few of those bills have been paid since then, but the deadline for on-time payment was Dec. 31.

Warren County’s overall tax collection came in at 98.73 percent, despite a couple of large bankruptcies such as DESA, said Tax Deputy Carol Hurd. Last year’s collections were the highest ever since the state stepped in to buy delinquent bills, but collection of 2008 taxes isn’t far behind, she said.

“I was expecting a lot worse,” Hurd said.

The county’s unpaid tax bills have passed from her desk to Warren County Clerk Dot Owens, who will set a date to sell them, Hurd said.

“Anything that is considered real estate will be subject to sale,” she said.

Unlike the county, the city doesn’t sell liens against delinquent property, said Bowling Green Chief Financial Officer Jeff Meisel.

“We handle ours more like a bank foreclosure,” he said. City Attorney Gene Harmon sends out letters to the biggest debtors, warning them of legal consequences, Meisel said.

“When it’s all said and done, usually by June 30 we are about 98 to 99 percent collected,” he said.

Like Hurd, Meisel said the city’s collection rates on 2008 taxes have been running about as they always do, despite the economic downturn.

The biggest debtor after DESA is Regal Car Wash; the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based business owed a total of $42,831.13 on nine bills, some to the city, some to the county.

Close behind is Aramark Education Service of Philadelphia, owing $42,295.21 - some in city property tax, some in county personal property tax.

“That’s merchants’ inventories and merchants’ tools,” such as uniforms, Hurd said of the county levy. She said Aramark had contacted her office and assured her that it would pay up.

Next comes M.A. Williams Construction and M.A. Williams Properties, both owned by Mark Williams; his total, together with personal bills, came to $22,963.34.

Then a familiar name crops up: Renaissance Apartments on Kentucky, the former Bowling Green Junior High School that was to be converted into apartments, but where work has been stalled for more than three years. Backers of that project owe $20,463.17 in city taxes for 2008, but have owed both city and county for previous years. Harmon said the four-building complex is on his list for foreclosure, an action probably to be filed in June, but that he expects the bill will be paid before the buildings actually go up for auction.

The next-biggest tax debtor, Coomer Oil LLC of Columbia, owes $20,422.34 for the county’s oil lease tax. That bill may not be sold like pieces of physical property are, Hurd said.

The largest handful of bills is held by R&D Properties of Bowling Green LLC, which owes $18,921.73 on 50 pieces of property, all to the city.

Daren Johnson, as owner of Placid Properties according to state incorporation records, owes a total of $14,967.44 on 26 bills split between city and county. He’s followed by Susan Jost and her firm Running With the Horses LLC, owing $14,075.83 on just six bills.

Next is South Park LLC, owing $13,865.85 altogether. The city wants $11,489.93 from AMMJL LLC - standing for Amy, Mark, Matt, John and Luke Williams - while Micheala Holmes and her TCH Enterprises LLC left $11,374.22 unpaid.

Property taxes are Warren County’s biggest source of income, and while the city relies more heavily on its occupational tax, property taxes make up a sizable chunk of the city’s budget, too. There are about 44,000 pieces of taxable property in Warren County, with many of them getting bills from the city too, yet less than 1,000 of those bills went unpaid.