Nobody likes paying taxes, but most of us do it.

When we don’t pay our county taxes, our names get published in the newspaper along with others. If we still don’t pay, the county will garnish our bank account. If that doesn’t work, the county can seize our property and sell it on the courthouse steps for the back taxes.

The system may not be perfect, but it works. Richmond County collects about $96.50 out of every $100 it’s owed. The city of Rockingham also collects about 96 percent.

Dobbins Heights on the other hand collects only about 61 cents on the dollar.

“That is an abnormally low collection rate,” Ellis Hankins, executive director of the North Carolina League of Municipalities told a reporter for the Daily Journal last week. Virtually all other municipal government collection rates are in the neighborhood of 95 percent, even for small towns like Dobbins Heights.

The fact is a lot of positive things could happen in Dobbins Heights if the board got the tax situation in order. For starters, they could afford to lower the rate, which is now 50 cents per $100 in property value.

If the collection rate were increased, the town could also borrow money when they had to because they could show a solid revenue stream. As it is, the major source of funds for the town comes from sales taxes which can fluctuate wildly and from grants.

If the town simply collected the taxes and interest that they are already owed over the last 10 years, they’d have more than $200,000 in the bank. That’s no small sum when you consider the entire annual budget of Dobbins Heights is $283,000. Instead of asking the county or Golden LEAF to buy them a garbage truck, the town would have the money in the bank to do what ever other government does, pay for it themselves.

Yet town officials have thrown up their hands and say it’s too costly to advertise the bad debts and too tough to go after out-of-town property owners. With that kind of attitude, the bad debt has risen from $4,866 in 1999 to $30,746 in 2008. In just the span between 2007 and 2008, the bad debt increased by $10,000. It appears taxpayers have gotten the message that’s it’s OK not to pay your local taxes in Dobbins Heights because nobody is going to do anything about it.

We agree that collecting from out-of-town owners who may not care about Richmond County could be hard. However if the taxes aren’t paid that property could be sold and a local person — who does have a reason to see Dobbins Heights prosper — might be able to buy it.

If the town board can’t, or won’t get tough on those who don’t pay, we suggest that the board simply quit taxing property altogether. Slash $50,000 out of your budget and just learn to live within your means and don’t expect outside help.