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Officials in Marshall, Tyler, Wetzel and Brooke counties, along with those in Doddridge, Harrison, Monongalia and Pleasants counties, have been left wondering how in the world a third-party vendor made a significant mistake in natural gas valuations and what the state is going to do about it, after news last week that those counties received millions of dollar less in tax collections than they should have last year.
Because of the Tax Division's and a third-party's error in calculating the new formula for natural gas property tax valuations, newly producing natural gas wells were undervalued. Tyler County received nearly $16 million less than it was due. Marshall County was shorted $5.3 million; Brooke County, $4.4 million,; and Wetzel County, $1.6 million.
"I'm very troubled by this,"said Delegate David Kelly, R-Tyler. "I think it has got to be addressed, and addressed very quickly. This affects several counties, but it really affects Tyler County to the tune of $15.8 million. We have to take a look at it quickly and have to figure a pathway forward."
And that's the problem. No one at the state level seems to know what that path forward might be.
"The state hasn't given us any official indication of how they are going to handle this or how we're supposed to handle this," Tyler County Assessor Lisa Jackson said. "It's just unfortunate. We have to be able to figure something out. Until they tell us what to do, we're just at a standstill."
Disconcerting as it is to observe the difficulty the Tax Division has had in implementing the new formula, it is of even more concern that lawmakers have so little faith in the division's ability to get this right that many of them feel compelled to step in with new legislation. It's enough to make taxpayers wonder what else might have gone wrong.
Whatever solution is reached, and however the counties and state eventually agree to correct this enormous mistake, one thing is certain: all involved must adopt Kelly's sense of urgency and get this figured out -- now.