As a handful of Island County businesses that have gone belly-up over the years were written off last week, Island County erased a list of personal property taxes that will never make it into the county’s coffers.

The resolution, which was submitted to the Island County Board of Commissioners by Island County Treasurer Maxine Sauter, cancels personal property taxes owed by 22 companies that have failed, gone into bankruptcy or, in some cases, disappeared from the region without a trace.

Under state law, a list of uncollectible property taxes must be submitted to the county on the first day of February, along with an affidavit from the treasurer stating that a diligent but fruitless search had been made for the goods and chattel with which to make up such taxes.

In all, the revenue loss to Island County tallies at $2,083.89, a write-off Sauter said is one of the lowest uncollectible personal tax totals in the entire state.

“It’s so little,” Sauter said. “In our county, we don’t have that much business going on.”

The individual property — or, as Sauter called it, “inventory” — taxes owed by each business also are relatively small, ranging from a low of $12.73 to a high of $543.39 — the amount once owed by out-of-business clothing shop Mutiny Bay Co.

Sauter said the creation of the property tax list is a continuous process that goes beyond the treasurer’s office. County assessors are responsible for making sure new businesses are on the tax rolls, as well as for investigating whether certain companies have gone out of business or fled the region.

Some names can stay on the list for a long time before they’re finally written off.

“We work with them as long as we can,” Sauter said. “They’re small businesses, and sometimes they have a tough time. We can’t write them off until we are positive they’re no longer here and no longer functioning.”

The list of these businesses, she said, just gets longer every year.

“Each year we submit a list of those that are uncollectible. The list goes on. It’s continuous.”

Sauter said she is generally pleased with the low amount of uncollected personal property taxes in the county. She prefers such write-offs to the alternative, which is repossession.

“When they don’t pay, we could say we’re coming to close you down, but we don’t do that,” Sauter said. “We sure don’t want a big truck in our backyard.”

Sauter said that she is sympathetic with the plight of small businesses that try to make a go of it, but can’t quite come up with the right formula to stay in business..

“It’s sad in a way,” she said. “It’s hard on me, because I feel for these people.”