After the Troup County Commission got an update on the sheriff’s collection of delinquent taxes, Tax Commissioner Gary Wood says he still believes the county made a bad decision by taking the collection out of his office.

Representatives from Government Tax Solutions in Carrollton told the commission it has collected $2.2 million in delinquent taxes since Dec. 21, with a 73 percent collection rate. Right now there are 200 parcels eligible to be sold at the next tax sale April 6; the agency wants to have that number down to around 50 by the actual sale.

Deputy Chuck Smith said the collection office, operating down the hall from Wood’s office in the Government Center, has “two large accounts,” belonging to local developers, with 132 parcels and $339,000 in delinquent taxes. The collection office hopes to have those parcels settled early next week.

Wood, who wasn’t at the commission meeting, questioned the collection agency’s numbers. He’s been against the decision to take collections out of his office since commission moved to contract with the company in October.

“We had the best collection rate in the state” before collections were taken away from his office, Wood said. He said h office would collect late fee penalties just like the collection agency, but with collections in Wood’s office, that money would stay in Troup County.

“Now that money is going to Carrollton,” he said.

Wood said the collection agency is collecting taxes about two months faster than his office did, but spending more money in the process. Smith was hired to work for the collection company and an employee from Wood’s office, cut in the budget process in July, was moved down the hall to work with Smith and the collection agency.

“It’s a duplication of services,” Wood said. “I was proud of the job I did. I was aggressive, but I also worked with people.”

County Manager Mike Dobbs said Friday morning he “doesn’t see” how Wood would think the county is spending more than it collects.

“The intent of the update (from Smith) was just to give an update on what had been collected,” said Dobbs, who didn’t want to comment on specifics that Wood said.

Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe said Friday the update was not meant as a chance for the commission to bless or approve of the collection, but just to allow commissioners to hear how collections were going.

“Gary Wood and Sheriff Donny Turner are two duly elected officials,” Wolfe said. “They don’t answer to us, but to the constituents. If Gary has a problem with tax collection, he needs to take it up with Donny.”

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshraderlagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.