Waste of the Day: Locals On the Hook For Business’s Unpaid Taxes
Topline: Residents of Lanesborough, Mass., will likely be on the hook for over $1 million of their local shopping mall’s unpaid taxes. Local officials are suing the mall owners, but their own attorney told them during an Aug. 11 board meeting to "treat [the money] as though you might not get it," according to iBerkshires.
Key facts: The Baker Hill Road District, an independent authority that manages the Routes 7-8 Connector road in Lanesborough, sued mall owners JMJ Holdings for $545,000 of unpaid taxes in December 2024. The road district plans to file another $500,000 lawsuit for unpaid taxes from 2025.
The New York Times reports that the Berkshire Mall once drew huge crowds and was Lanesborough’s single largest taxpayer. At its peak in 2007, the mall made $2.3 million for the town, which helped fund the police department, schools and road maintenance.
Today, the mall is mostly shut down. The roof needs $5 million in repairs, and one of the main doors is destroyed after someone reportedly tried to drive their car through it, according to The Times. The water and electricity have been shut off and break-ins are frequent.
The mall was worth $60.5 million in 2008, but it sold to JMJ Holdings in 2023 for just $100 because the firm agreed to take on the mall’s $4 million mortgage. The firm plans to turn the property into a senior living facility.
Joseph Jones, a manager at JMJ Holdings, told The Times that the mall’s $1.2 million tax bill is far too high given the mall’s low value. He claims the bill is scaring off potential investors in the housing complex.
Lanesborough officials argued that getting rid of the road district and the tax revenue it collects from the mall and other properties would raise taxes for the rest of the town. Police Chief Robert J. Derksen told The Times the road district provides a third of his budget, and without it “taxpayers are going to have to make up the difference.”
Last year the five highest-paid public employees in Lanesborough were police officers, though only two of them made over $100,000, according to OpenTheBooks’ database. Derksen made $97,649.
Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.
Summary: Customers are supposed to be the ones looking for bargains from their shopping mall, not the other way aroun
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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