Oak Forest Will Pursue Lost Dollars Through State Tax Refunds

Those who owe money to the City of Oak Forest may have to cough it up sooner than they think.

The city council Tuesday signed off on a program that will allow the Illinois Comptroller to deduct the money due the city from a debtor's state tax refund, retirement or payroll check.

The money will be deposited into a Debt Recovery Trust Fund, and the person will be given 60 days to protest. At the end of 60 days, the money will be transferred to the city to cover the debts. The debts could be from parking tickets, fines or fees.

Oak Forest Finance Director Colleen Julian was unsure of how much is owed the city, but said the city will benefit from the agreement with the comptroller.

"We could potentially recover money we would have otherwise not had the opportunity to," Julian said.

Last January, the city took similar action to recover unpaid parking ticket fines. Oak Forest aldermen passed an ordinance giving Oak Forest Police the option of towing cars of drivers with three or more unpaid parking tickets. The ordinance was meant to help recover some of $1.5 million in unpaid fines owed to the city at the time.

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