Judgment Against Rogers County Ensures Tax Hike

Property taxes in Rogers County will go up next year, to pay off a $22-million judgment against the county.

Every person who owns property in Rogers County is on the hook for the payout, because of a court case that ended with the last appeal denied this week.

"It was a train wreck from the get go and the train wreck continued through trial and through appeal," Rogers County District Attorney Janice Steidley said.

The judgment against Rogers County totals $22 million that will be added to property taxes.

For taxpayers, it's a three-year payout that will start in 2013. The tax increase amounts to just over $100 per year on a $100,000 home.

District Attorney Janice Steidley says the problems started with mistakes by the county commissioners, but she claims the DA at the time didn't do enough to contain the damage.

"In my opinion, this is a case that never should have been, and if it was going to be a case, it should have been handled a lot differently than it was," Steidley said.

Gene Haynes was district attorney when the case started, and he's the one the current DA is criticizing.

"I think it's unfortunate that someone wants to come in like a Monday morning quarterback and say you should have done this or that, when they can't say it would have made any difference in the result," Haynes said.

The case centered on county commissioners trying to stop a new limsetone mining operation through annexation.

The mine couldn't open, but the mining company sued the county and won

Haynes says he regrets the result, but not the effort that went into the fight.

"I think we fought it the best, with the facts that we had," Haynes said. "I didn't think we would have this bad of a result. I thought there was a good chance they wouldn't prevail at all."

The County Assessor and District Attorney says it's possible the judgment could be slightly less – or paid through sources other than property taxes.

The DA says she's looking into whether that's possible.