NEWARK — If you picked up Thursday's Star-Ledger and turned to the legal ads section, you might have thought all of Newark was a land of tax deadbeats.

Like it does every year, City Hall published a list of citizens, small businesses and non-profit groups who had not paid their property taxes on time.

But this was not just any list. The notice, which typically runs three or four pages, ran to 36. It cost the city $72,000 to print and it listed 11,007 properties that would eventually be sold at auction if the bill remained unpaid.

Perhaps the most illustrious among the laggard taxpayers was Mayor Cory Booker who, until Thursday, owed $2,820 for his newly purchased home on Longworth Avenue.

The endless list was the result of a giant administrative screw-up by the city. Officials decided months ago to change the usual deadline for paying property taxes from December to November but didn’t tell taxpayers until it was too late.

So government procedures followed the same old pattern — send the list of late payers out for publication — but this time the list was a mile long. And the citizenry was irate.

"Our offices are getting bombarded," said North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, who himself received one of the letters. "This is setting off panic, especially with a lot of the seniors who own property."

The list is a necessary legal step in the city’s accelerated tax sale — one of a slew of budgetary ploys to shore up the city’s 2011 finances. Normally taxpayers would have until the end of the year to pay off their fourth quarter taxes. This year city officials asked citizens to pay up by Nov. 14.

"There was a lot of urgency involved in making sure the tax sale was done," Booker said. "We realize that the window is a very short window, but we’re taking every step possible to let people know that if you pay your taxes, you will be in no jeopardy whatsoever of having a lien placed on your property."

Booker said he never received his tax notification. He said his deed was recorded before the notices went out and was mailed to the wrong address. He said he paid his taxes in full Thursday.

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The tax sale, which was meant to garner about $16 million for the 2011 budget, has two goals: Taxpayers are motivated to pay on time and those who don’t get liens which are sold to investors, infusing more money, more quickly, into city coffers.

The problem was that many taxpayers were not told about the new deadline until Nov. 22, when they began getting letters saying that if they had not settled their debts by Nov. 19, a lien would be placed on their property. So the first notification was received three days after the deadline had passed.

Newark has now offered a reprieve for the thousands of residents whose names the city published Thursday.

"Property owners will be in no danger of having a lien placed or losing their property as long as their tax bill is paid by December 28th." said Business Administrator Julien Neals in a statement.

Still, the hassle that last week’s letter and Thursday’s advertisement caused has drawn fire from council members who are facing harsh criticism in their communities.

"I was cussed out from Amazing Grace to Zion," said Councilwoman Mildred Crump who chaperoned a group of angry taxpayers to Neals’ office earlier this week. "I understood their frustration. It’s not fair to them."

Along with Booker, the city’s Fraternal Order of Police, Habitat for Humanity, and Wells Fargo Bank were among many institutions under threat of auction, along with a slew of residents who normally pay on time.

"We’ve never had a problem. The taxes have always been paid for," said Migdalia Llerena, 83, who’s lived in her Ridge Street home in the North Ward for 30 years. For a $201 tax bill, her home was listed as potentially up for auction come December 28.

Migdalia’s son, Angel Llerena, handles all her finances. He said what the city was doing was immoral.

"The way I read it was if you didn’t pay up you were going to lose your house," he said. "How can they justify doing this when all these families are going to be affected?"

Llerena said he paid his mother’s taxes Tuesday. Her name still appeared in Thursday’s paper.

"They’re not going to lose their homes," Neals said but added that taxpayers will have to get current with their taxes by the end of December or, "there will be a lien on their properties."

Newark agreed to participate in the tax sale as part of a deal to take $32 million in emergency aid from the state.

Neals said the timing of last week’s letter was "inexcusable" and said he is conducting a full inquiry into why it went out as it did.

The city’s tax bills are usually laden with heavy increases in the third and fourth quarters because the city passes its budgets so late in the year.

Booker urged patience but said the tax sale was necessary to maintain solvency.

"I hope people will understand the larger picture," he said.