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HomeNewsArchivesCourt Ruling Will Allow Government to Reissue FY 2006 Tax Bills

Court Ruling Will Allow Government to Reissue FY 2006 Tax Bills

Oct. 12, 2008 — A court-approved freeze on the recent property-tax bill recall will allow the government to reissue fiscal year 2006 bills and collect the revenue it needs to sustain the FY 2009 budget, according to government officials.
In 2000, a group of commercial-property owners took the V.I. government to court, alleging that it was assessing commercial properties based on replacement rather than actual property value — a method, they said, that resulted in inflated assessments. Thomas Moore, then the sitting U.S. District Court judge, agreed, and in 2003 ordered the government to conduct a thorough revaluation of commercial and residential properties.
Meanwhile, property-tax values were frozen at 1998 levels until the project was complete and a new assessment system — which had to be certified by a court-appointed special master — was established. The court case and revaluation process prevented the government from issuing property-tax bills for 2006 and 2007, government officials have said.
While the injunction, bills for fiscal year 2006 still went out in August, prompting attorneys for the commercial-property owners to file a motion to find the government in contempt of the court's 2003 order. In a memorandum opinion issued in early September, V.I. District Court Judge Curtis Gomez granted the motion and ordered the government to pay $5,000 a day — and rescind all recently issued fiscal year 2006 property-tax bills — until it comes back into compliance with the settlement agreement. He also ordered the government to pay the property owners' attorney fees, along with other costs racked up during the "litigation of the contempt issue."
But the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted a government motion to stay Gomez's order, which will ultimately allow the government to reissue the FY 2006 property-tax bills at the reassessed values, according to a Government House news release. The stay is in place pending a ruling on the government's official appeal of Gomez's decision.
The stay will allow the government to collect the money it needs to "fully finance" the FY 2009 budget, and to provide residents with "essential government services," according to Attorney General Vincent Frazer.
Frazer is expected to meet this week with the governor, Lt. Gov. Gregory R. Francis and Tax Assessor Roy L. Martin to decide when the bills will be reissued and how the money will be collected, the release said.
Once the bills are reissued, residents are expected to pay them in a "timely fashion" and file their appeals with the Tax Assessor's Office, according to the release. The Board of Tax review will "take up pending appeals on a consistent basis," the release said.
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