Lowndes County is filing to lift an automatic stay of payment to collect delinquent taxes from Sanderson Plumbing, which filed for bankruptcy last year.
It’s been almost a year since the toilet-seat manufacturer, which had a production plant in Columbus, filed for bankruptcy. At that time, it had fulfilled all financial obligations to Lowndes County, the city of Columbus and Columbus Municipal School District.
Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews said the company has since become delinquent. It owes $68,043 to the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, $72,123 to the city and $118,384 to the city school district, Andrews said. That’s a total of $228,550.
An automatic stay is an injunction that halts actions by creditors to collect debts from a company that has declared bankruptcy.
Local attorney Gawyn Mitchell was hired to represent the county, city and school district.
As of May, the company owed more than $2.8 million in unsecured claims to creditors. The majority of its 250 employees were laid off that same month and production stopped.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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