Section 22-99 Tax bills; form and content.

Each tax bill shall contain a brief general statement of the facts authorizing its issue, the amount for which it is issued, the name of the record owner and the description of the property against which it is issued, the rate of interest which it bears, when it begins to bear interest, and shall state that it is a lien against the land therein described, and give the time that the lien continues. Tax bills shall bear no interest for sixty (60) days after the date of issue, at which time such tax bills shall be due and payable in full. After the expiration of sixty (60) days, tax bills shall bear interest, on the unpaid balance, at a rate equal to the Wall Street Journal’s Prime Rate as published on the day the city council adopts the resolution declaring the necessity of the project or as published two weeks before the first reading of the ordinance authorizing issuance of the tax bills, whichever rate is lower. Tax bills issued after January 1, 2006, for projects for which the city council has adopted a resolution of necessity before January 1, 2006, shall bear interest, on the unpaid balance, at a rate of nine (9) percent or at a rate equal to the Wall Street Journal’s Prime Rate as published two weeks before the first reading of the ordinance authorizing issuance of the tax bills, whichever rate is lower. The interest rate shall be set forth in the ordinance authorizing issuance of the tax bills . Every tax bill shall be a lien against the lot, tract or parcel of land described therein for a period of ten (10) years after date of issue, unless sooner paid. The lien, for tax bills payable in installments, shall expire one year after the date of maturity of the last installment, except when it becomes necessary to bring suit to enforce the lien, in which case the lien shall continue until the expiration of the litigation. All tax bills shall be assignable, and the owner or holder of any tax bill may enforce the collection thereof by filing suit in a court of competent jurisdiction, in the name of the city to his own use or in an action brought by the city in its own name and for its own use. If the property owner cannot be served by legal process, a suit may be brought by attachment or by any other legal remedy. Tax bills shall be prima facie evidence of what they contain, of their own validity, of the facts authorizing their issue, that they are a lien on the land described and, in all tax bills issued in payment for sewers, the liability of the person named as the owner of such property. No mere informality or clerical mistake in any of the proceedings shall be a defense thereto. Any error made in issuing any tax bill may be corrected by the city clerk, either by interlineation or by issuing a new tax bill in lieu of the erroneous one. When a tax bill is corrected by interlineation, the date of making same shall be certified by the clerk on the margin or back of the bill. In any action brought on any tax bill, the court shall have the authority to correct any error in the tax bill.