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Five taxing entities that received property tax revenues from the refinery were ordered by a court to return some of that money after the refinery challenged its property valuation.
The refinery won a lower property valuation from the El Paso Central Appraisal District for the years 2006 to 2008.
The court order forced the city of El Paso to give back $1,466,186 in tax revenue, and the county to return $792,207. University Medical Center of El Paso sent a refund check to the refinery for $396,981, and El Paso Community College returned $246,585.
El Paso Independent School District, which was ordered to return $2,757,127 to the refinery, will deduct that amount from the refinery's $5.4 million property tax bill this year.
All of the taxing entities were required to pay back the revenue to Western Refining within 60 days or to pay interest to the refinery.
Officials of the El Paso Independent School District said the refinery agreed to not charge the district interest.
Most of the taxing entities said they were surprised to receive a notice in September from the city's tax office spelling out how much they owed Western Refining.
Nearly all of the financial managers at the taxing entities regarded the refund as especially bad news in a tough economy.
El Paso County Auditor Edward Dion said paying back the money was difficult after the county government
was already forced to make cuts to its budget because of lower than expected revenues.
"It (refund) was a substantial impact," Dion said. "We had not planned on it, and it made our situation worse."
Both the city and University Medical Center of El Paso had to dip into reserve funds to give money back to Western Refining.
The hospital district decided to write a check rather than carry the expense into its new fiscal year, said Phil Rivera, chief financial officer for University Medical Center of El Paso.
Paying for that additional expense did not affect services at the hospital and its clinics, but Rivera said he has concerns about the hospital district and other taxing entities having to take on that large a burden again.
He wondered how there could be such a large difference between the value initially placed on the refinery and its properties and the value settled on by Western Refining and the Central Appraisal District.
"One of my questions to the city tax collector and anybody who would listen is how do we assure that this doesn't happen again in the future," Rivera said. He added that he has not received an answer yet.
Dinah Kilgore, the executive director and chief appraiser at the Central Appraisal District, said that Western Refining has also filed a lawsuit as part of a challenge of its property valuation from 2009.
Michael D. Hernandez may be reached at mhernandez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.
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