More than 240 property owners with long-overdue water, sewer and solid waste accounts will repay the balances through Sacramento County property tax bills.
More than 240 Folsom property owners with delinquent utility accounts will soon have their unpaid balances collected through Sacramento County property tax bills after the Folsom City Council unanimously approved the annual transfer Tuesday night.
The council adopted a resolution confirming a report of delinquent utility charges totaling $360,217 across 242 active accounts and formally requested the Sacramento County Auditor collect those amounts through the secured property tax roll. The annual process allows the county to collect unpaid utility debt alongside regular property tax payments.
The delinquent balances include charges for city water, sewer and solid waste services provided to properties throughout Folsom. While the city initially identified approximately $377,500 in eligible delinquent charges in its staff report, the final amount approved Tuesday reflected payments received before the public hearing that reduced the total outstanding balance.
“These have to be more than $150 delinquent to be noticed, so if they’re $150 delinquent, that’s 60 days past due, which is about 90 days past bill generation date,” Revenue Services Manager Elizabeth Hanna told the council Tuesday night. “So if they’re $150, it’s more like a $500 account balance. They’ve been delinquent for a while.”
Hanna said the updated report presented Tuesday reflected payments received as recently as that morning, reducing some account balances before the council’s vote. She emphasized the accounts in question do not represent customers who are simply a month behind on a single bill. Instead, the process targets accounts with sustained unpaid balances that have gone unresolved for multiple billing cycles despite prior notices.
Under state law, cities may request that county auditors collect delinquent utility charges through the property tax system. Unlike a recorded property lien, the process places the debt directly onto the property owner’s annual tax bill as a line item alongside other assessments, ranging from local improvement district fees to landscape and lighting district charges. Property owners must then pay half of the total amount in December and the remaining half in April along with their standard property tax obligations.
Council members asked whether the county places a lien against affected properties and whether payment plans might remain available once the debt transfers to the tax roll. Hanna clarified the distinction.
“Not a recorded lien,” she said. “It’s a levy to the property tax roll, so a little bit different than the recorded liens. It just goes on to your property tax roll. It goes on your tax bill. You pay it just like you would property taxes.”
Hanna said the charges are added directly to the annual property tax bill rather than recorded as a traditional property lien. However, property owners who fail to pay the full tax bill, including the delinquent utility charges, remain subject to the same penalties and collection process that apply to delinquent property taxes.
The resolution adopted Tuesday night covers utility accounts that remained delinquent after the city’s annual collection efforts for the current fiscal year. The city issues multiple notices before delinquent accounts become eligible for transfer to the county, providing property owners several opportunities to bring their accounts current before the charges are added to their tax bills.
Before Tuesday’s public hearing, the city mailed notices to affected property owners and published legal notices as required under state law. State law also allows the council to approve, modify or reject the delinquent utility report following the public hearing and prohibits the transfer if valid protests are filed by owners representing a majority of the affected parcels. No such protests were received.
Despite the number of accounts involved, city staff noted the delinquent balances represent a relatively small portion of the city’s overall utility system. Folsom collects approximately $61.6 million annually through roughly 28,000 municipal utility accounts, with the delinquent balances accounting for less than 1 percent of annual collections.
The collection process is authorized under California law and is used by many municipalities to recover unpaid utility charges while maintaining revenue needed to operate utility services. Tuesday night’s resolution was approved unanimously following the required public hearing, which received no public comment.
City staff must now submit the finalized delinquent utility report to Sacramento County by Aug. 3 in order for the charges to be placed on this year’s secured property tax roll. Once accepted by the county, affected property owners will see the delinquent utility charges included as part of their annual property tax statements.
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