Three years worth of real and personal property tax valuation protests by the Holcim Cement Plant before the Colorado Board of Assessment Appeals has resulted in tax refunds and abatements to Holcim totaling $1,525,600. Those refunds will have to be made by the five taxing entities which get revenue from Holcim’s tax payments including the Florence-Penrose RE-2 School District, Fremont County, the John C. Fremont Library District, the Southeast Colorado Water Conservancy District, and the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
In a letter sent last week to the five taxing entities Fremont County Assessor Stacey Seifert detailed the fiscal impacts to each one. The total fiscal impact in 2011 to the RE-2 School District will be $1,154,400. The other fiscal impacts from the Holcim refunds include Fremont County--$234,820; John C. Fremont Library District--$81,450; Southeast Colorado Water Conservancy District--$37,270; and the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District--$17,660.
Seifert said that typically when a taxpayer protests to the State Board of Assessment Appeals (BAA) a hearing is conducted and a decision is rendered within 6 of 8 months of the appeal being filed. In this case Holcim appealed both their real and personal property taxes in 2008 and again in 2009 and 2010 before a BAA hearing was scheduled. Seifert said in all of those three years Holcim never presented any evidence to her office to support the protest of their values. Subsequently when protest hearings were scheduled before the County Board of Equalization (County Commissioners) in each of those years Holcim never appeared or submitted any evidence. Without offers of proof for improper values Seifert said she and the County Board of Equalization had no choice but to deny the appeals.
Seifert said the backlog of assessment appeals to the BAA became so large that the state board was hearing smaller 2009 appeals prior to a hearing being set on even the first year of Holcim’s appeals. Seifert said county officials met with representatives from Holcim last December to define the issues being appealed, however Holcim officials offered only standard information regarding depreciation, mobile equipment licensing and incorrect reporting of mining equipment at that meeting.
With Holcim’s BAA hearing finally set for February 24th of this year Seifert said she and County Attorney Brenda Jackson received Holcim’s evidentiary package ten days prior to the hearing as required by law. Seifert said that package was the first time in three years of valuation protests that the county had received any information regarding estimated 2008 personal property values. That package detailed the drop in Holcim’s cement production in 2007 as part of an ‘Economic Obsolescence Report’. Seifert said had that information been available three years ago adjustments would have been made to Holcim’s personal property values which would make the impacts to the five taxing districts much less severe.
Seifert said compounding the impact on Fremont County government is that state law requires the county to pay Holcim interest on the refunds due at the rate of 1 percent monthly or 12 percent annually. County Commission Chairman Ed Norden said in this case Fremont County is being hit with a huge interest penalty for a problem that is the direct result of the State Board of Assessment Appeals not scheduling their hearings in a timely fashion.
Because the property tax revenues were already collected and spent in prior years, state law allows all five of the taxing entities to assess a one time special mill levy to recover the money they will have to pay in the refunds and abatements to Holcim. The timing of the required refunds and abatements to Holcim creates a cash flow problem for all of the taxing entities. While the refunds have to be paid to Holcim now, the special mill levies cannot be assessed until next December and the entities won’t get those dollars back until taxes are paid in the spring of 2012.