"Instead, the sole recourse is against the delinquent property — even when the property is worth less than the taxes."
A 1956 Supreme Court precedent allows similar tax forfeiture laws, ruling"nothing in the Federal Constitution prevents" the government from retaining the surplus"where the record shows adequate steps were taken to notify the owners of the charges due and the foreclosure proceedings." Tyler's lawyers call this a"huge windfall" for the government, but the county claims, overall,"the costs of uncollected taxes and administering tax forfeiture laws exceed the revenues generated by sales of tax-forfeited parcels."the Pacific Legal Foundation , a conservative public interest group representing Tyler pro bono, said."Both the U.S. and Minnesota constitutions say the government cannot take private property without giving owners just compensation.
In a similar dispute, the justices in 1982 concluded the"Court has never required the State to compensate the owner for the consequences of his own neglect."