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KSJD Newscast - March 8th, 2016

  • The Colorado Supreme Court has decided that it will hear an appeal from Kinder Morgan of a case involving property taxes in Montezuma County.

The Colorado Supreme Court has decided at long last that it will hear an appeal from Kinder Morgan of a case involving property taxes in Montezuma County. At stake are millions of dollars in revenue for schools, the county, and special districts. The case began in 2008, when the county’s assessor at the time, Mark Vanderpool, audited Kinder Morgan’s tax statements for the previous year and concluded that the carbon-dioxide giant had under-reported its earnings because it was deducting the cost of transporting the product to Texas. Companies are allowed to deduct third-party tariffs, but Kinder Morgan and an associated corporation owned the pipeline company. Kinder Morgan paid an additional $2 million in taxes but appealed to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, which found for the county, and then to the Colorado Court of Appeals, which also ruled in the county’s favor. Kinder Morgan appealed to the supreme court last summer, but the court just now decided it wants to be rebriefed on aspects of the case. On Monday, county-commission attorney John Baxter told the commissioners the court will consider two aspects of the appeal, including whether it’s right to allow retroactive assessment of property taxes for other years. Baxter said oral arguments will likely be late in 2016.
 

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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