Bird pays its bill

Although the city of Austin apparently enjoys a good working relationship with the scooter company Bird, the same could not be said for Travis County.

Bird Rides Inc. appeared at No. 7 on Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant’s list of top 10 delinquent property owners. According to Elfant, as of Monday, the company owed Travis County $149,800 for its 2021 taxes and the number was growing each day the company failed to pay.

Elfant told the Austin Monitor that his office had attempted to contact Bird without success. The next step, he said, would be a lawsuit against the company: If it failed to pay at that point, Travis County would seize its scooters and other property.

However, the whole ordeal seemed to have been peacefully resolved by Tuesday night. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the bill had been paid and said Bird would be removed from the list of delinquent taxpayers.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are actively working to get this resolved and will be in touch as soon as possible.

— Bird (@BirdRide) June 7, 2022

Topping the list of delinquent taxpayers is W C 1st & Trinity, which owes more than $718,000, followed by DJCC Development Corp., owing more than $549,000. Other delinquent taxpayers on the top 10 list are TX Austin Manor LP (nearly $275,000), the Optimist Club of North Austin (nearly $224,000), WC 2101 West Ben White LP ($163,640), CCI Equipment Leasing LLC (more than $161,000), White Rocks Entertainment (more than $141,000), DM Estate LLC (nearly $80,000) and Nagobich Family Revocable Trust (more than $76,000).

Update: Following publication of this story, a representative from DJCC emailed the Monitor to explain, saying: 

The DJCC Development Corporation is a tax-exempt, religious and charitable organization whose property is home to a community center, pre-school, elementary school, and multiple religious congregations. We have been working for months with local officials to correct a record-keeping error that incorrectly led to a tax bill. County tax records had wrongly listed one of our affiliate organizations as an owner of one of the DJCC parcels.

 Once this is resolved, we do not anticipate that DJCC will owe any taxes or penalties. We remain committed to being a good community partner.

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