County refunding $47,000 to Consol
The Washington County commissioners are expected to approve $49,000 in tax refunds Thursday morning, the bulk of which will go to Consol Energy Inc. for overpayment of taxes last year on the corporation’s coal reserves in Somerset Township.
Bradley Boni, the county’s chief assessor, said Wednesday a law firm asked the county last year to take a look at the value of Consol’s coal in Somerset because the county may have missed assessing some acreage.
The county reviewed its records and sent a “change of assessment notice” to Consol, which resulted in an increased tax bill.
The coal giant responded that the county’s bill was incorrect because the bituminous deposit was already mined. It appealed the change, and the result is a reduction in its tax bill of about $47,000.
“The information we received wasn’t entirely accurate,” Boni said. “Now, we have an adjustment.”
Coal reserves that were sold off or “severed” by the owners of the surface real estate are taxable under Pennsylvania property tax law. Oil and gas reserves are exempt from this type of property taxes.
Coal reserves account for less than 2 percent of Washington County’s total assessed property, which, in 2014, including both taxable and tax-exempt properties, was $1.8 billion. Of that, coal represents $34 million, or 1.89 percent of the billion-plus grand total.
But the taxable value of property in Greene County increased by about 4 percent in 2013, primarily as a result of a jump in the value of coal, which now makes up one-third of the county’s total assessed property valuation.
In May, Washington County entered into a contract with Research Technologies Corp. of State College, which specializes in mineral appraisals, to update its records related to coal. RTC is doing mineral account deed research and mapping, as well as annual maintenance of mineral parcels at the rate of $250,000 for this year and last year. The county will pay an annual maintenance fee of $60,000 for 2016 through 2018, according to Chief Clerk Mary Helicke.
Boni said Tyler Technologies Inc., which has the $6.9 countywide reassessment contract, is working separately with RTC for appraising coal reserves for that project.