Calcasieu Parish jury upholds assessor valuation in Phillips 66 2025 appeal

The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury on Nov. 6 voted to uphold the parish assessor’s 2025 valuation for Phillips 66, denying the refinery’s formal tax appeal before the board of review.

Wendy Aguilar, the Calcasieu Parish assessor, asked jurors to uphold her valuation after presenting the assessor’s review of the annual business personal property process. Miss Aguilar said the assessor’s office begins with an open-book review and that valuations for business personal property are reassessed annually based on owner-reported forms and the Louisiana Tax Commission depreciation tables.

Scott Tyler, general manager of the Phillips 66 refinery in Westlake, told the jury his company is appealing increases since 2022 and said its property tax burden has “more than quadrupled since 2017,” with Phillips paying “more than $7,000,000” a year in property taxes. Tyler said third-party assessments do not support the parish’s valuation and that the company would prefer a negotiated settlement to avoid protracted litigation.

Jurors pressed Phillips 66 on the consequences of its repeated appeals. Juror Angipon noted that funds placed in escrow during appeals are frozen and named services that could be affected, including the hospital, airport, drainage and road maintenance, recreation districts, libraries, juvenile detention and jail funding. Angipon cited an escrow figure of roughly $47,700,000 during his remarks, a number later referenced with slight variation in the discussion.

Juror Landry and others asked how long appeals could continue. Officials and counsel said an earlier (2022) appeal is currently before the Third Circuit Court of Appeal, and if that decision is appealed further it could reach the Louisiana Supreme Court. Mister Gabb confirmed the parish was not incurring legal fees for the appeals at this time.

Mister Landry moved to uphold Miss Aguilar’s valuation; the motion was seconded by Mister Markantel. With no objections recorded, the jury carried the motion, leaving Phillips 66’s administrative appeal denied at the board-of-review level. The ruling does not preclude Phillips 66 from continuing its judicial appeals, which Phillips representatives indicated were already in process.

Phillips 66 representatives and the assessor briefly discussed but did not commit to arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution option; both said they would need to consult legal counsel. The assessor said informal settlement attempts had been attempted in the past without success.

Next steps: the jury’s action leaves the parish valuation intact and allows Phillips 66 to pursue judicial remedies outside the board of review. The 2022 appeal remains pending at the appellate level.