Five months ago, West Virginia Department of Tax and Revenue officials told residents throughout the state who had leased their oil and natural gas rights for production to trust them. State employees were working to correct inaccurate mineral rights appraisals that are used to determine property taxes — values that some residents saw increase by three- to four-fold from the prior year. The values would be fixed by the time tax bills were sent, state officials assured.

From discussions with local residents, state lawmakers and county assessors, it appears that didn’t fully happen. When some local residents we’ve heard from received their property tax bill in the mail late last week, the inaccurate values the state initially set remained unchanged. Others say theirs was fixed. This has led the process to now being scrutinized by the West Virginia Legislative Auditor’s Office, where early indications are that some of the appraisals are right, and some are wrong.

The West Virginia Legislature, through the 2021 passage of House Bill 2581, tasked the State Tax Department with creating a new methodology for valuing mineral rights. This was necessary after the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled the prior valuation method unconstitutional.

The Tax Department’s work was completed last year, and earlier this year mineral rights owners began receiving notices of increase in their values. When the State Tax Department finally shared just how it was determining the values, it became clear that most of the valuations were wrong.

When contacted about the matter, State Tax Department officials said they were aware and would fix it before tax bills went out. It does appear as if some appraisals were fixed, but others were not. And even though tax bills have been sent and payments are due in the coming months, there are still several hundred outstanding mineral rights appeals sitting before the West Virginia Office of Tax Appeals.

So what does this mean? For one, some people will be paying more in taxes this year than they should. That leaves you with less of your money to spend as you choose. This is nothing short of back-door tax increase to residents with mineral holdings. West Virginians don’t appreciate that approach.

Also, the increased tax collections could mean local school systems and county governments will see their budgets increase based on faulty numbers. They will spend that money — that’s what government does — and at some point in the future when this is fixed and you are paying less, these agencies will have a budget they can’t afford, and elected leaders will be faced with the decision to cut the budget or increase the levy rate. It’s a cycle of fiscal negligence that should have been fixed. And if state officials were unable or unwilling to figure out how, they should have reverted the values back to last year’s numbers to protect, not punish, mineral rights owners. State officials need to explain just how this happened.

Gov. Jim Justice, who has refused to engage on this issue since we first reported on it in February, must own this mistake. His Tax Department made assurances that were not kept. As he seeks a higher office with the U.S. Senate, he must not forget over these next 17 months that he works for West Virginians and can’t ignore matters such as this.