Claimant seeks $4,200 overage after 2009 tax sale; committee remands case for further review

Sharon Greer told the Joint Claims Subcommittee she learned in January 2025 that a parcel owned by her grandparents had been sold for back taxes in 2009. Greer said she did not receive required notice and that certified mail was returned; she said the tax sale cleared $5,596.61, of which back taxes were $1,396.61 leaving an overage of roughly $4,200 that Greer says her family never received.

Counsel for the land commissioner (Peyton Murphy, speaker 25) told members the statutory window to claim excess proceeds had expired in 2013 and that remaining funds escheated to the county. Members debated whether the committee could override that outcome via an appropriation; Bureau of Legislative Research staff said the committee can create an appropriation in a fiscal session to pay a claimant outside the land-commission process.

Senator Peyton (speaker 4) moved to remand the claim to the claims commission for further evidence and findings; members later adopted a substitute motion to hold the matter for joint JBC/claims review and return at the next meeting. The motion to remand (and to have staff seek additional information) carried.