By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. told members of the public and county commissioners court the county will refund all of the school district property taxes that it incorrectly collected.
Owens spoke about the property tax refund issue during the Jan. 4 meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court.
“We collect taxes for the city of Del Rio and the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District. The numbers that the county put in the statement were off a little bit. We have already identified a little over 11,000 accounts that overpaid on their school taxes, to a total of over $220,000,” Owens told the court.
He said County Tax Assessor Collector Elodia Garcia, County Auditor Matt Weingardt and SFDRCISD Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios would meet to further discuss the issue.
“The county – the county, not the school district – will begin to reimburse funds on all these accounts that had overpaid their school taxes,” the county judge said.
He further explained, “Because of our tax rate being wrong in the statement that was sent out. So the citizens that are going to be receiving funds, those checks are going to be going out just as soon as possible, and in an effort to be totally transparent, as soon as we get more information, we will put it out, but the county has already gone through the process of identifying every one of the accounts that people overpaid.
“We’ve identified the accounts; we’ve identified the amount of money and you all should be receiving a refund in the very, very near future. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us, and we’ll try to answer your questions,” he said.
“On behalf of Val Verde County, I’m sorry that this happened. We will fix it, and you will get your refund. It’s that simple,” Owens added.
The county judge addressed the issue again in a video he posted on his personal Facebook page on Friday.
He again explained that Val Verde County collects property taxes levied by the county and for those levied by the city and the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
“So we put in the wrong tax rate on you all’s tax bill. The school district had nothing to do with the wrong calculation or the wrong tax rate being put on your tax bill,” Owens said.
“The county put it in, the county printed the statements, there was a screw-up, and we’re going to move forward, but the school district had nothing to do with that screw-up. In saying that, we’ve visited with the school district and the members of commissioners court have for the last couple of weeks been aware of it and made decisions along with our tax assessor collector that this would be refunded,” the county judge added.
“We have a company called True Automation that does our program for this and between True Automation and our IT individual, Mr. Ramiro Barrera, they were able to identify all the accounts that were overcharged,” he said.
“It’s not a whole lot per account, but you all paid too much,” Owens added.
He said the county has identified slightly over 11,000 accounts affected by the mistake and reemphasized that every account that was overcharged has been identified.
As in the earlier meeting, Owens said the total amount overcharged came to just over $220,000.
“The way this is going to work, just to be completely transparent, “ Owens said, noting the school district administrators and the board of trustees will take up the issue at their meeting on Jan. 17.
He said the county would ask the school district to refund the entire amount of the overpayment, which will in turn be deposited into the county’s account.
“The bottom line is, the people that paid too much, you all will get a refund. At the end of the day, it is not our money, and you will get your money back,” Owens said.
He also addressed how the problem would be corrected so it won’t happen again in the future.
“There will be more sets of eyes on this, and we will fix it. It won’t happen again,” Owens said.
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