Railroad Forums 

  • Pan Am Ayer MA Top Delinquent Tax Payer

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1018862  by NellsChoo
 
http://www.nashobapublishing.com/breaki ... i_19966399

AYER - Three weeks ago, a list of each and every property owner that owed water and sewer payments to the town was posted on the official Town of Ayer website http://www.ayer.ma.us. It was all part of an effort to beef-up collections for the town....... Aggregating its debt, Pan Am Southern (Railways) owes the lion's share of taxes to the town. Pan Am occupies 6 of the Top 20 tax debtor slots, for a total owed of $401,567.09 between 2011 and 2012......... After Pan Am Southern, the next single highest sum owed is $50,034.73 by Shaker Hills Golf Club. The club faces an April 12 Middlesex Savings Bank foreclosure auction on the golf course that straddles the Ayer/Harvard town line.
 #1019235  by mick
 
A few years back the city of Waterville threatened to take the shops by eminent domain if back taxes weren't paid. Why didn't they? Because they can't without permission from the STB. All railroads do this, they own so much property the taxes are sky high. They make deals and settle with the towns for smaller amounts, then it starts all over again, it's a revolving door. And you wonder why trucks took away so much buisness from railroads, why they abandon so many branch lines. (railroads in general, not just Guilford)
Suppose the city of Waterville or Ayer or anywhere else decides they are going to take a rail yard for non-payment of taxes. What are they going to do with it, sell it to another railroad? build a park? It is probably a Superfund site so it will cost millions to develop. Then company x goes out of buisness or moves because they can't get or ship their product, or they switch to trucks and the town has 100 more trucks coming in every day, then company y, and so on. Jobs are lost, more tax base is lost, and there is a big empty lot in the town that nobody knows what to do with.
 #1019471  by newpylong
 
Yeah this is definitely not uncommon for any railroad - they are usually deliquent (and sometimes very delinquent) on property tax payments. I remember the City of North Adams, MA threatened to take the track once and the mayor "always thought it would be fun to run a railroad". They eventually settled as they always did...