Things are looking up for State School Superintendent Kathy Cox.
Cox, whose Peachtree City home was scheduled for auction July 7 at the Fayette County Courthouse, can now breathe a sigh of relief.
According to Fayette County News and Today in Peachtree City legal editor Lynn Crittenden, the sale has been cancelled.
Cox and her husband, a developer, filed for bankruptcy last fall.
“My husband and I, like so many other families across America, were deeply affected by the sudden and unprecedented downturn in the housing market,” Cox said in an e-mail that was forwarded by her office.
“For the past several months we have been trying to resolve our financial situation and, as part of that process, we have been working closely with our mortgage company and banks.
“Those negotiations continue and I am hopeful we will come to a resolution very soon.”
Last November the superintendent and her husband, John Cox, filed for personal bankruptcy, citing more than $3.5 million in liabilities and less than $650,000 in assets accrued during the nationwide housing slump.
Most of the debt is tied to John Cox’s business, Pebble Hill Homes. His wife, who makes about $125,000 a year, had no role in the business but was a co-signer on loans for it.
The Coxes’ home, which they share with two teenage sons, was their biggest listed asset, valued at $450,000.
The balance on two mortgages on the home total $442,907.55, according to court documents.
“The collapse of the home-building market has been well documented and small builders, like my husband, have been hit especially hard,” Cox said last November.
“In the end, we felt that we had no choice” but to file for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy filing came barely two months after Cox won $1 million on the television game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
She said at the time that she would donate the winnings to two schools for the deaf and one for the blind, and her spokesman later confirmed that she set up a “gift foundation” to handle the money for the charities.
Cox is a former Fayette County Teacher and State Representative before being elected state school superintenent.
|
