SAN ANTONIO -- Valero Energy Corp. has filed 150 lawsuits against 42 appraisal districts across Texas, saying that tax appraisal officials have valued its propertiesranging from convenience stores to refineriestoo high, reported the Associated Press.
Valero's appeals cover several years of property assessments, involving millions of dollars in already-paid taxes, said the report.
There is a lot at stake, said Robert Mott, attorney for the Bexar Appraisal District where Valero is based and a dozen other appraisal districts. Basically, [image-nocss] if Valero prevails, somebody has to pay that refund. And above all, someone has to pay the cost of litigating these things, and that's other property owners.
The company said it is not fair that property appraisers have doubled the value of several properties. At Valero, we are committed to paying our fair share of taxes, spokesperson Mary Rose Brown told AP. And we do pay a lot of taxes. In many instances, we are an area's largest single taxpayer.
San Antonio-based Valero, which reported a profit of $3.6 billion on $82 billion in revenue last year, paid more than $138 million in property taxes nationwide in 2005, up from $113 million in 2004, Brown said. She added that more than half its total property taxes are paid in Texas. She said one Valero property is now valued at $240 million, an increase from $50 million in 2005, but did not name the location because it is involved in a lawsuit.
This is all about corporate greed, Ken Nolan, chief appraiser in Dallas County, where Valero is contesting the value of more than 80 gas stations and c-stores from 2002 to 2005, told AP. It's about corporations not wanting to pay their fair share.
The county has not settled any of the cases and expects to go to trial next year, the San Antonio Express News reported Sunday.
Nolan said Valero is being unreasonable in its protests, arguing that its personal property at retail gas stationseverything from gasoline to hot dog rollers to coffee machinesis worth less than what the company paid for it. If the personal property is worth half what you paid for it, how do you stay in business? Nolan asked.
There also are suits in several other North Texas counties, the newspaper reported.
While contesting property appraisals is a national trend among companies, it has grown stronger in Texas during the past decade because of the state's increasing reliance on property taxes to fund the state budget, J. Andrew Hansz, professor with the finance and real estate department at the University of Texas at Arlington, told AP.
In addition to the Texas lawsuits, Valero is suing appraisal districts in California and other states.
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