CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Flint Hills Resources has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against the Nueces County Appraisal District regarding taxes for the years 2018-22.
"We had been working with Flint Hills for the last year-and-a-half on settlements," said Nueces County Chief Appraiser Ronnie Canales on Monday.
So while they agreed to pay the full amount for 2018, they also will pay 90 percent of the 2019-22 valuations.
"Flint Hills -- from 2018-22, they're done," Canales said.
The company's tax money goes to financially support local entities such as Tuloso-Midway Independent School District and Del Mar College. He said the agreed-to sums will give them more money to meet their budgets.
"It's not gonna cure the problem, but it'll help," Canales said.
Currently, he said the appraised values of Flint Hills and Valero refineries both have increased to the $6 billion range, but for the last five years, he said Citgo, Valero, and Flint Hills have been able to contest their appraisals, bringing their values down to only about $1 billion.
Flint Hills released a statement Monday in response to the settlement.
"As afforded by state law, Flint Hills Resources has paid its taxes at a level consistent with its most recent valuation. We continue to work with the tax authorities and the courts to resolve our differences."
Valero, however, has been a different story, Canales said.
"They've been very hard to work with," he said.
He said that company went before the appraisal review board saying it wants to help the entities it funds, including CCISD. Canales said the best way to do that is to pay its back taxes.
"If they really want to help, come in and settle the five years, and we can work on (20)23," he said.
The problem lies in that the appraisal district says the land on which Valero, and other local refineries sit is worth billions of dollars, while the refineries themselves say they're only worth hundreds of millions, and Canales said the refineries have the financial ability to defend their positions.
"Over the years, we had not been able to get proper resources to do what we do," he said. "They have ample resources to do what they do."
In coming to this agreement, however, Canales said Flint Hills has done a "commendable job of coming in and trying to settle."
Multi-skilled journalist Michael Gibson contributed to this developing story. Check back with 3NEWS for updates.