A costly decision made years ago has cost Rogers County in NE Oklahoma 22 million dollars. City’s should take notice of this recent court case favoring property rights over government intervention. News 6 reports on this historical judgement that will end up costing the residents of Roger County hundreds of dollars a year for many years.
The commissioners’ decision comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court in March declined to hear an appeal in a 2009 court judgment in the Material Services vs. Rogers County case.
News 6 in Tulsa reports on this amazing court case that has could go do as one of the largest judgements against a county in Oklahoma history.
“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.
This would go down as a win for property rights. Apparently the County Commissioners at that time did not want to allow a limestone mine in their county so using the county’s zoning and planning commission prevented an individual his property rights to conduct business. Unfortunately, the Commissioners and District Attorney responsible are no longer in office. And now the current Commissioners and District Attorney are taking the blame for action done nearly ten years ago.
Residents in Rogers County are upset according to the comments on New 6 Online website. Now Rogers County residents must go to the polls and vote in a sale tax amounting to 1/3 cents for 15 years to pay for this judgement. If the vote falls then the judgement will automatically added to the property tax and will cost $100 per year on every $100,000 of home value. So the voters has a choice to pay this judgement by property tax or sales tax.
This is a unfortunate mistake by county officials years ago and will cost the residents millions. That’s Just Bob would like to encourage the residents of Rogers County to vote for the sales tax. Sale tax spreads out over more people and has the ability to increase faster than land values.
The current county commissioners Don DeLozier, Mike Helms and Kirt Thacker are the unfortunate elected officials in office at the time of this judgement. I am sure if they were in office 10 years ago Material Services would have mined their property and the county would have received property taxes from the 300 acres.
We will be investigating to see if this is related to UN Agenda 21. Read more and see all the comments at http://www.newson6.com/story/17373558/rogers-county-special-election-called-to-pay-rogers-county-court-judgment
