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Beyond the Byline: Dealing with ‘that dreadful night’

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Oktoberfest debuts at Pittston-based Susquehanna Brewing Co.

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; After more than a decade and nearly $54,000, Sugarloaf Township resident Charmaine Maynard is caught up on her real estate taxes.</p><p>&#8220;I want to have a party,&#8221; Maynard said as she approached the tax-claim office counter at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Friday.</p><p>She handed over a certified check paying the final $993.35 she owed.</p><p>The clock was ticking because Maynard&#8217;s property was among 1,684 scheduled for a Sept. 28 first-stage tax auction.</p><p>Properties must be auctioned when taxes are at least two years past due unless the owners obtain removal through a court order, enter into a repayment plan or file for bankruptcy to get out of the sale.</p><p>Maynard, 64, said she got behind on her taxes years ago because her structure was assessed too high as she recovered from a fire, a snowstorm roof collapse and repetitive flooding that required additional drainage.</p><p>The assessment of her family homestead on Route 93 was reduced from $185,300 to $106,200 in 2008, but by then the debt had already snowballed.</p><p>She started tackling the delinquency in 2006 with payments on taxes dating to 1998, tax-claim records show.</p><p>Maynard said she relies solely on $1,650 in Social Security and can&#8217;t work because she suffers from seizures, fibromyalgia, asthma, a &#8220;crippled&#8221; right arm, atrophied leg muscles and other conditions.</p><p>To come up with the final payment, Maynard said she relied heavily on a diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and put off car repairs and surgical veterinary care for her service dog.</p><p>&#8220;Any money I could get, I just put towards it. I&#8217;ve been living like a pauper the last few months,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Her next priority: paying 2017 taxes before the end of the year.</p><p>The combined school, county and municipal tax bill on her property is $1,829 based on current tax rates.</p><p>The bill would be $1,363 more if she had not received the assessment reduction.</p><p>&#8220;What I&#8217;m paying now, I should have been paying all along,&#8221; Maynard said.</p><p>She is determined to live out her remaining days in the structure, which was designed by her father and has been her residence since she was 12.</p><p>Maynard vowed to continue supporting a push to get rid of property taxes. She served on the study commission that drafted the county&#8217;s home rule charter and ran a watchdog organization called Citizens Opposing Political Suppression, or COPS.</p><p>Her group organized a bus trip to a 2005 rally in Harrisburg supporting legislation to increase the sales tax to eliminate school property taxes.</p><p>On Friday, Maynard asked the tax-claim clerk for a report to verify in writing that no more delinquent taxes were owed.</p><p>At one point in the past, she thought she had been paid up, only to realize her receipt did not include a running total of what she owed.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m done right?&#8221; she said, waiting for the clerk to nod her head before leaving the office with her service dog, Emma, at her side.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Maynard </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_charmaine-2.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Maynard </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County woman finally pays off hefty back-tax debt