Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn last week rejected checks for $1.7 million in overdue property taxes from bankrupt coal company Peabody Energy because they fell short of the amount due — and then took money out of her own pocket for a public relations effort assuring taxpayers the company would get no special treatment.
Peabody, which filed for bankruptcy in April, sent two checks totaling $1,798,507.38 — a figure that did not include more than $91,000 in interest and fees. In a letter that arrived with the checks, Peabody suggested that the county could pursue additional charges through an amended claim in bankruptcy court.
A frustrated Horn, saying she could not accept less than the amount owed, mailed the checks back to Peabody on Thursday afternoon. Then, through a private public relations firm, she issued a news release explaining her action and the reasons behind it.
“For a county treasurer to cut deals for some taxpayers — while making others pay their full amounts — would be unfair and would erode public trust,” she said in the news release. “By law, if my office can’t offer a tax break to a single mom who worries about feeding her children, I’m not going to offer one to a multi-national corporation that just asked the bankruptcy court to pay its executives $12 million in bonuses.”
She was further frustrated on Friday by news that Peabody had now proposed setting aside more than $16 million for its executive bonuses.
Asked about her unusual public relations move, Horn explained that Routt County doesn’t have a public information officer to handle such matters. She said she felt strongly enough about the importance of keeping county taxpayers abreast of the situation to spend her own money for communications help.
“All the other elected officials and all the other people want to know what’s going on,” Horn said. “I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that we’re treating them the same. I can’t move that needle for (Peabody), and they shouldn’t be asking for it.”
Horn also voiced her concerns about Peabody in a letter to the editor published in Steamboat Pilot & Today.
The company responded to her actions with a prepared statement.
“Peabody sent a $1.8 million property tax check to Routt County and has done everything we can to pay these taxes for the benefit of the community based on what the court has allowed,” the company said. “Our communication to the county indicated that our payment would fulfill our tax obligation, but it does not require the county to waive its claims for interest or penalties. We have been pleased to resolve the payment process in most jurisdictions where we operate.”
Peabody isn’t the only entity on the county tax rolls to have its check rejected. Horn said she has returned 287 checks so far this year because they failed to include interest and fees.
“I take care of everybody in Routt County, I don’t pick winners and losers,” she said. “It would be like assessors assessing them differently because they’re bigger landowners. They are assessed the same way as everybody else. We have to keep the public trust in play and make sure that we treat everybody the same.”
Peabody’s failure to pay its property taxes on time particularly impacted the public schools. South Routt County School District needed a $1 million bailout from the Colorado Board of Education’s contingency reserve fund to help fill the gap.
Although there was no expectation that the district would repay the money any time soon, the emergency funding drained the state board’s reserve fund pending a request for additional money through the legislature.
Even as the delinquent taxes contribute to a countywide cash crunch, Horn said, she remains committed to working with Peabody toward resolving the issue.
“This really boils down to whether the county treats everyone equally when it comes to tax collections,” she said in the release, “or whether our larger and more politically-connected taxpayers get special discounts, and are held to a different standard of conduct.”
