County board authorized refund

Third party appraisals, protests and refunds dominated the conversation at the June 7 Kimball County Board of Equalization meeting.

At a previous BOE meeting, Kimball County Assessor Sherry Winstrom had requested the Board’s consideration to seek a proposal from Standard Appraisal for an independent, county-wide, third party assessment, at a cost of slightly under $100,000 as her duties were to set new cost tables for the county.

The cost would cover assessments of all residential, commercial and agricultural building sites and properties.

“As you all know,” Winstrom said in the earlier meeting, “this year I was supposed to come up with my new 2013 cost tables. I was working on the market depreciation and with that market depreciation – it was ‘off the wall’ with all of the homes that were in town.”

At the most recent meeting the board members directed the assessor to follow up with questions to the state liaison regarding the deadline for the new cost tables.

“There are a lot of inconsistencies. (The evaluations) need to be fixed,” said Deputy County Assessor, Annette Brower.

The board reiterated that they tabled their decision until more information regarding the final state deadline for evaluations is made available to them.

The Stanard Appraisal company has been added to the June 21 agenda, to present the appraisal proposal.

The commissioners then continued a public hearing from the May 17 meeting to receive comments and give consideration to High West Energy’s protest of the rejection by the Assessor Winstrom to deny their request for a tax refund on monies that were overpaid.

Lindsay Forepaugh, CFO of High West Energy, was present and represented by Attorney Dale Cottom of Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the continuation hearing.

“We realize that if you approve our request for a refund, that it’s something that you have to deal with over time,” Cottom said.

The total amount of overpaid taxes from High West Energy was nearly $100,000. Of that, Kimball County Ambulance would be responsible to return $1,980 and the schools would be required to refund approximately $58,000, with other money being refunded from various other subdivisions.

Forepaugh admitted that the overpayment was due to their clerical error stemming from a computer “glitch”. She stated that she understood some would want to claim a hardship form when it came to repaying the monies to their company.

At the end of the public hearing Matt Turman, attorney for the board, addressed his clients regarding the subject.

“In reviewing the case laws and statutes, and in visiting with their (HWE) legal counsel,” offered Turman, “it would be my recommendation that the commissioners authorize the request of the refund back to High West.”

Turman explained that each subdivision can submit a hardship to the Kimball County Treasurer, Diana Quicke, and may be granted five years to do so.

The board authorized the repayment of the funds to High West during the meeting. Forepaugh shook each commissioners hand and extended her appreciation for their efforts.