Rio Grande Mining Co. calls tax bill “unlawful,” threatens legal action
March 13th, 2014
By ALBERTO TOMAS HALPERN
PRESIDIO COUNTY – An error by the Presidio County Appraisal District has resulted in a nearly $700,000 shortfall for three Presidio County property taxing units.
The error was made when the appraisal district certified an incorrect property value for the silver mine in Shafter, which is owned by Rio Grande Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Canadian-based Aurcana Corporation.
The incorrect value that was certified listed the property value at $3,539,190 instead of $35,309,190. After the mistake was found, Presidio County Tax Assessor/Collector Norma Arroyo issued the mining company a supplemental tax bill.
Rio Grande Mining is now contesting that bill.
“It was an error of $32 million,” Presidio County Tax Assessor/Collector Norma Arroyo said this week.
The taxing units affected by the mistake are the county of Presidio, Presidio ISD and the Big Bend Regional Hospital District.
The three taxing entities were all given the incorrect certified values and built their budgets around that figure, but they are ultimately shortchanged, especially Presidio ISD.
“If they do not pay those taxes, that puts a very big dent in our budget,” Presidio ISD Superintendent Dennis McEntire said. “The only real problem right now is budgeting that cash flow difference.”
The supplemental tax bill to the mining company was for $691,696, of which Presidio ISD should receive about $447,967. The county should have received an additional $204,000 and the hospital district is owed about $39,000.
In a February 24 letter to the taxing entities, the tax collector, and the appraisal district in in response to the bill, Bill Woods with Rio Grand Mining said that statutory procedure was not followed in correcting the error and assessing the supplemental tax bill.
“For these reasons, we believe the supplemental tax bill we have received is unlawful.” (emphasis in original). “Should any efforts be made to collect or enforce this tax bill, I intend to engage my counsel to proceed with all legal remedies available, including a suit for injunctive relief,” Woods wrote.
Woods didn’t respond to several telephone calls for comment.
Hospital district executive director Maria O’Bryant said she never received the letter from Rio Grande Mining and declined to comment further.
Arroyo explained that the appraisal district found the mistake, “but never notified the taxing units.”
Cynthia Ramirez, the appraisal district’s chief appraiser, described the mistake as a “clerical error,” adding that after her office made the correction, her software programmers delivered the incorrect appraisal to the various taxing units.
“We were under a lot of stress because we had already passed our certification deadline,” Ramirez said. “We just missed a zero in the value. It got corrected, but the corrected (value) never made it to the tax (assessor’s) office.”
The appraisal district’s appraisal review board must now meet and reconfirm the correct appraisal rate. Assuming the board reconfirms the appraisal rate, then the supplemental bill to the mine can be issued.
But county judge Paul Hunt said the mining company could potentially challenge that even further.
“If they do so, they will be fighting an uphill battle because a clerical error has a lot of legal precedence and so they will not prevail,” said Hunt. “But they will delay the collection for four to six months.”
In 2012, Rio Grande Mining Company contested the appraised value of their property, which had been valued at $39 million. After a hearing and review by the appraisal review board, the value was assessed at $35 million. In addition, litigation is currently pending in district court over the mine’s 2013 appraisal.
Ramirez, of the appraisal district, said Rio Grande Mining agreed to the 2012 appraisal of $35 million, leaving her confused over why they are contesting the supplemental bill.
“Now they’re saying it’s $3 million and we shouldn’t be billing. They agreed on that value. I don’t know why they’re going back on that,” she said, adding that the mining company should pay taxes on the “value that they’re supposed to pay on.”
Carlos Nieto, appraisal district board president and a Presidio ISD school board member, was hopeful that the situation would be resolved in a timely manner, adding that the loss of tax dollars significantly impacts the taxing entities.
“God knows we need the resources,” Nieto said. “It is what it is. It was a clerical mistake. We’re hopeful that we will go through the process and we expect a successful outcome.”
http://bigbendnow.com/2014/03/rio-grande-mining-co-calls-tax-bill-unlawful-threatens-legal-action/
Dan  |
