Mayor of Wood River says annexations were left off tax rolls; assessor says corrections made within statutory window

Greg Kramer, mayor of Wood River, told the Hall County Board of Commissioners during public participation that several city annexations and recent subdivisions were never placed into the city's tax district, costing the city what he estimated was roughly $136,000 in lost tax revenue dating back to 2016.

"We ended up doing a TIF deal for infrastructure ... and it was never put on our tax rolls," Kramer said, outlining multiple annexations and new homes in Subdivision Number 5 whose taxes he said were substantially lower than neighboring properties. He said he presented the ordinances and paperwork to county staff and the assessor's office and that some parcels were placed in non-city tax districts.

Mandy from the assessor's office responded that the register of deeds had not been forwarding annexation information to the assessor's office historically but that the problem has been corrected and that tax corrections had been applied "as far back as we could by law." "So the city is getting their money," she told the board, adding the assessor's office has instituted checks to ensure new subdivisions are assigned to the correct taxing district going forward.

Commissioners asked how far back corrections could be made; the assessor's office representative said state statute limits retroactive tax corrections and she believed the office had gone back the statutory three years for corrections. Kramer said he had notified the county and the county attorney and requested further follow-up because he had not been notified directly when corrections were made.

The board asked county staff to follow up with the parties involved and to provide Kramer a timeline and accounting of any retroactive collections and distributions. The board did not take further formal action during the meeting beyond authorizing the chair to sign tax correction notices that staff presented earlier in the agenda.

Why it matters: If annexations are not recorded correctly with the assessor, municipalities can lose local revenues and residents can receive sudden tax-bill changes when mistakes are corrected. County staff said they have corrected past entries where possible and implemented a process to prevent recurrence; statutory limits on retroactive corrections constrain how far back revenue recovery can go.

Next steps: County staff agreed to meet with Kramer and town officials to review the affected parcels, to confirm what retroactive collections (if any) were processed and to supply the board with a more precise calculation of amounts and the timeframe covered by corrections.