Springfield, IL – If you owe a sizeable sum of back taxes, watch out. The state of Illinois is stepping up efforts to publicly call you out.
Every year the state's Department of Revenue lists a few dozen businesses and/or individuals who either owe the state a lot of back taxes, have carried the debt for longer than the past couple of years, or both.
Department spokeswoman Susan Hofer says now that the list is searchable, it will be easier for people to find who or what they're looking for.
"It certainly is easy to get bored when you're about a third of the way through the list," says Hofer. "What we wanted to do was help make it easy for people to find what they're interested in through our website."
Hofer says the Department of Revenue began making calls to delinquent taxpayers about six months ago, threatning to post their names online if they didn't pay what they owed. She says so far, about $2 million has been collected.
Users can search through the 100 names listed on the website by name, city, or zip code.
To listen to the entire interview with Susan Hofer, click play on the audio link above.