These States Are Devouring Widows’ Houses
A recent Supreme Court case reveals the injustice of property-tax debt forfeiture.
Sometimes it feels hard to find comparable biblical language for present-day political problems. But Scripture speaks directly to one current US Supreme Court case—Tyler v. Hennepin County, for which oral arguments are scheduled to begin in late April. To put it bluntly: The state of Minnesota “devour[s] widows’ houses” (Luke 20:47). Its handling of property tax debt is defrauding “laborers of their wages” and oppressing “the widows and the fatherless” (Mal. 3:5).
The case’s plaintiff is Geraldine Tyler, a 94-year-old widow and resident of Minneapolis. In 2010, she moved out of her one-bedroom condo because she felt unsafe in her neighborhood after a shooting. She couldn’t afford both the rent on her new apartment and the condo’s property taxes and left $2,300 in taxes unpaid.
Hennepin County, in cooperation with the state of Minnesota, added around $13,000 in penalties and fees, giving her a $15,000 bill she could not afford to pay. She forfeited her condo, but when the state sold it for $40,000, Minnesota didn’t just take the $15,000 it said Tyler owed. It kept the full sale price and left her with nothing.
Minnesota isn’t unusual as a state that permits this kind of taking, as Reason magazine (where I am a contributor) has reported. About a dozen states have similar laws. Some are even crueler than the Minnesota rule.
In Nebraska, for example, “People who fall behind on their property taxes are bought out, without their knowledge, by private investors,” Reason’s Billy Binion explains. They receive no correspondence until three years later, at which point they have just 90 days to pay their back taxes, 14 percent interest, and all ...