The mayor of La Paz, Baja California Sur, says the municipal government will seize properties whose owners have failed to pay their taxes.

Rubén Muñoz told the newspaper BCS Noticias that there are unpaid taxes on 400 properties, including 76 vacant lots, whose owners owe over 12 million pesos (US $597,830).

The municipality started acting against the delinquent properties on August 16, but Muñoz said that only 76 property owners have been notified so far.

“It’s mostly property tax debts going back more than five years,” he said. “There are also environmental violations on many of the properties.”

Muñoz noted that the owners of the properties in question have violated their obligation as citizens to pay property taxes.

“Citizens have rights, but also have obligations, and one of the most important ones, for people who live in cities, is paying property taxes,” he said.

La Paz is not the only municipality where property owners neglect to pay their taxes. In Acapulco, 40% of the 267,000 property taxpayers were in default, the municipality said in May.

Source: BCS Noticias (sp)