Because of a clerical error on assessed values for Occidental Permian, Ltd., Western Texas College faces an additional $507,441 decrease in ad valorem tax revenues, the WTC board of trustees discussed Monday.
WTC President Dr. Barbara Beebe said the error was made by T.Y. Pickett, the company that does the valuations for the Scurry County Appraisal District.
“He put it down for $204 million, and it was supposed to be a lot less,” Beebe said. “They’re now saying it is an $84 million deduction in their values, so (Scurry County Chief Appraiser) Larry Crooks had sent out a notice to everyone that we need to look at what we already had in place.”
The board already approved the budget and set the tax rate for the fiscal year.
In the original budget, the college had budgeted for $8,006,361 in revenue at the 33 cents property tax rate. The college is now looking at $7,498,920 in ad valorem revenue at the same rate.
“We currently have to come up with $507,000 and we’re not quite sure how we’re going to do that,” Beebe said. “We have no recourse that we believe in this error in the values. We would love to look into the fact to see if they do have an error and omissions bond that would cover them from making this astronomical error because all the taxing entities, as you can well imagine, are kind of in our same boat, except those who haven’t set their tax rate.”
Beebe said that on Wednesday, she and Chief Financial Officer Patricia Claxton will meet with Campbell, Crooks and Cogdell Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Officer Ella Raye Helms and Chief Financial Officer John Everett to discuss the issue.
Claxton said she has not seen an error like this in 26 years.
“We all make errors, but when you work in the volume of numbers that (T.Y. Pickett) is working with, does your personnel not get somebody to verify that you’re inputting correctly?” Claxton asked. “When the majority of our budget is salaries and benefits, you really have to start thinking about where you can find this money.”
Beebe said the college is going to “try desperately” not to cut salaries or positions and find money from another source.
Trustees approved the small class report presented by Britt Canada, dean of institutional research and effectiveness. He said the college is trying to push dual-credit programs to high school students.
Dean of Institutional Affairs Stephanie Ducheneaux said she believes that new Snyder High School principal Chris Yeschke appears to be more enthusiastic about promoting dual-credit programs.
During the infrastructure report, Chief Operations Officer Mike Thornton said the new dining hall is not complete and students are being served in the existing dining hall. The paint and flooring in the cardiovascular area of the gym are finished.
Canada also gave an enrollment report, saying the fall 2016 enrollment is 2,183 students, up from the 2,126 the school had this time last year.
Claxton discussed the pre-bid process for roof repairs on nine buildings that suffered hail damage during a spring storm. The roofs were all shingled and were all 10 years old or less.
Because the cost will be more than the $50,000 insurance limit, the college must go out for bids.
Claxton said the bids will be done one-by-one for each structure, though it is possible that one company could be hired for all the bids.
Beebe said the college will host an ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) training course on Feb. 9-10.
After attending the ALICE Training Institute in July with Dean of Student Services Ralph Ramon, Beebe wanted to bring the course to WTC to help prepare people on how to handle an active shooter situation.
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