EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Seward County property owners received notices in August stating Seward County needed to issue a 25.868 mill increase in order to apply 21 of those mills to a “worst case scenario” refund to Conestoga in the amount of $5.9 million.
Several members of the public questioned the need or even the legality of collecting a potential refund amount in advance of any ruling.
Eventually, Seward County issued a 14.8 mill increase and claimed that slightly more than five of those mills would be allocated to the potential refund even though others have calculated the refund contribution to the budget to only refer to 2 mills of the increase. But representatives of Conestoga said there is no need to plan on making a lump sum payment because they would be willing to spread to refund over time.
“I don’t think expecting the refund to be made all at once would be fair,” Conestoga Board Chairman Nick Hatcher said.
While the two sides have not met, Conestoga CEO said he was hopeful that the two sides could meet and discuss a plan on how to address the refund once the District Court makes a ruling on what the proper value of the property should be.
“I hope we can meet fairly quick,” Willis said. “We are more than happy to sit down with the county leaders and say, ‘How do we make this work for both of us?’”
Spreading the payment over time was an idea Conestoga would entertain as well as other solutions.
“We’re open to anything, actually,” Hatcher said. “If it makes sense, bring it to us, and we will look at it. That’s what you have to be able to do. You have to sit down and talk about it and figure out what’s best for us, what’s best for the county. We’re sympathetic to the county. We’re tax payers.”
Willis also addressed the fact that Conestoga has been paying Seward County the tax rate established by the county, which was the highest rate. Seward County valued the operation at $93 million, and until a ruling is issued by the District Court in Sedgwick County, Conestoga will continue to pay the highest rate which Hatcher said is more than $3.2 million per year.
“There’s a rumor we aren’t paying taxes,” Willis said. “We’ve paid $24 million in taxes.”
Conestoga wasn’t looking to be exempt from taxes but to receive a fair valuation of their property to use as a basis for taxation.
“We will continue to pay our fair share,” Willis said. “We don’t want to pay more than we have to, but we want to pay our fair share.”
Conestoga was started more than 20 years ago, and Hatcher said the goal was to be a good community partner.
“We brought an industry into our county and expect to pay taxes,” Hatcher said. “We got help in the beginning, and thankfully we did, but at some point we have to pay our fair share.”
Willis added that the plant is looking at a $150 million expansion in the near future and recently acquired SAFFire so the company can explore the creation of an ethanol-based jet fuel.
But for now, Hatcher and Willis committed to mitigate the effect of the refund on Seward County, removing the need for the county to consider a lump-sum refund.
Seward County Chairman Scott Carr was asked to provide a response to Conestoga’s offer to discuss a strategy for refund option, but Carr said the issue would be discussed at the Nov. 17 Seward County Commission meeting.
