The Western Texas College administration is reviewing all options, including filing a lawsuit, to recover its losses from a clerical error in the setting of mineral values.
WTC President Dr. Barbara Beebe, during Monday night’s board of trustees meeting, said she has met with Chief Appraiser Larry Crooks about the situation twice over the past month. She learned Thomas Y. Pickett, the company which sets the mineral values in the county, has filed an errors and omissions claim through its insurance company.
Beebe said the error was discovered in late August, after the board set the tax rate for 2017. She said the college could lose $277,200 in property tax revenue due to the error.
Beebe said since an insurance claim has been filed, she does not know what will happen. Pickett’s contract is through the appraisal district and not the taxing entities.
“If we need to, we will pursue legal action,” Beebe said. “We will do whatever is in our power to get a resolution.”
Beebe said that Pickett officials and the appraisal district have been cooperative.
“I think it is a once in a career mistake,” she said.
The error also affected Scurry County, Snyder ISD and the Scurry County Hospital District.
The hospital board, during last month’s meeting, asked the administration to have Crooks attend its Oct. 26 meeting.
The miscalculation cost the hospital district $245,000 in property taxes this year.
Hospital board chairman Russell Riggan suggested the district ask the appraisal district to take 10 percent off its charges for 10 years to recoup the loss.
The hospital district pays the appraisal district $112,000 per year.
Snyder ISD officials are pulling money from reserves to cover the lost mineral values while the county, which did not set its tax rate until after the mistake came to light, increased its tax rate to cover the loss.
The error was on the mineral values set for Occidental Permian, LLC. The preliminary values for the company’s Cogdell Units in Scurry County were $177,254,980 and the certified value was entered incorrectly by Thomas Y. Pickett officials. The certified total was supposed to be $93,288,270, Crooks said.
Image
Body