Grady County districts will share $1.9M found in tax hunt
Grady County school districts will share $1.9M found in tax hunt

By Tony Thornton

Published: August 25, 2008

CHICKASHA — Grady County school districts will share $1.9 million, thanks to a "bounty hunter” whose company discovered hundreds of oil and gas properties that weren't on the tax rolls.

School superintendents received that news last week during a meeting with county Assessor Bari Firestone, whose push to use the outside company swept her into office in 2006.

Firestone and the school superintendents who supported her campaign view her report as vindication.

"I'm just tickled pink,” said Alex School Superintendent Norvel Heston, whose district stands to receive more than $265,000 in back taxes from discoveries made by Visual Lease Services of Holdenville.

Firestone hired Visual Lease Services after taking office in January 2007. The company's $258,000 fee was paid by schools and the county based on each district's total valuation. Heston's district, for example, paid about $16,000.

The Alex, Tuttle and Ninnekah school districts will receive the most money, because the greatest number of omitted oil-field properties were in those districts, Firestone said. The county's general fund, health department and emergency management system also will benefit, she said.

"We've got pipelines that have been omitted for years and years. They've had a good deal for years. ... We're just trying to make it where everybody's paying their fair share,” Firestone said.

She said companies with newly discovered properties also must pay a 20 percent penalty for each year since 2005 that they failed to report the property.

By law, assessors can go back three years to collect on previously untaxed properties.

The company contracts with 35 counties to perform work beyond the expertise of most county assessor's offices. It sent inspectors throughout Grady County over the past year.

Its findings: Less than one-fourth of the county's 2,296 gas meters were being taxed. Each is worth, on average, $125 to $150 in taxes, Mask said.

One company, which Mask wouldn't name, accounted for 800 untaxed meters, he said. His employees also found 105 compressors.

"They even found two gas plants that weren't on the tax rolls. That's unbelievable,” said Earl Cowan, superintendent of Canadian Valley Technology Center.

Firestone said of the collection letters that have been sent out, few companies protested. Other letters are being sent out this week.

Because the newly discovered properties stay on the tax rolls, schools can expect to benefit for years to come.

According to its contract, Visual Lease Services will receive a $40,500 annual maintenance fee to find other undiscovered properties.

The beneficiaries, mainly school districts, also will share that cost, Firestone said.

Mask said his company's first priority for Grady County is inspecting 291 oil and gas sites where his crews weren't allowed entry.

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