IN SHORT: Couple goes to court to keep their wells from being assessed at a higher rate.
By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
As the ages of lawsuits go, the one filed in April by a White County couple to stop the county from assessing their property at a higher value and collecting additional taxes because it has gas wells is still in its infancy.
The couple’s attorney has asked for a judge to decide the case’s merits without a trial and the judge hasn’t done that. Neither has the judge declared it a class-action suit as the couple requested or dismissed it as the county tax assessor and collector have asked.
So when the Beebe School Board voted earlier this month to oppose the suit four months after it was filed in circuit court, it did so in plenty of time to have its position considered.
And that position, said Dr. Belinda Shook, is that the district needs whatever tax money is available.
“I owe that to the staff and students,” Shook said. “I’m supposed to look out for them. That’s my job.”
Kenneth Joe and Mary May, through their attorney Richard Mays of Heber Springs, filed suit April 1 saying the tax is an illegal exaction for several reasons: Since the property tax is assessed on the land before the gas is removed, taxing the royalties is a double tax. The gas companies pay a severance tax, so the gas is being taxed twice. The property owners pay an income tax on the royalties, so the assessment is a double tax. And besides, the assessment is not an accurate reflection of the royalties being paid to property owners. It is too high.
Contacted this week, White County Assessor Debra Lang said she is simply following state law.
She’s been assessing land with gas wells at a higher value since the wells started producing in 2006.
“I’m just doing my job,” she said, adding, “And don’t think I didn’t ask at the state level before I started. This is a lot more work for us.”
Lang said she sees no real difference between farm land and land with mineral royalties.
“We assess agricultural land based on the value of the crop,” she said.
“Gas is a crop, more or less. The land has more value because it has a product,” she added. The assessment is based on gas production and that production is subject to tax, she said. The assessment is based on actual numbers from the gas companies, Lang said. If production goes down, so will the tax assessment.
Shook said she doesn’t know exactly how much will come to the Beebe School District from the gas royalty assessment. Each district gets only the tax from gas production in its district.
But schools are counting on every dollar they can get to make it through the recession.
Currently, Floyd is the only area in the Beebe School District with gas wells, but the district wants any additional property-tax revenue it can get from that area or any other that might be developed inside the district.
