Unpaid taxes

City negotiating with county over delinquencies on city-owned properties



Attorneys for Nueces County are asking that the City of Port Aransas pay delinquent taxes on 27 pieces of property owned by the city.

The properties were purchased by the city or awarded to it through judgments for parts of the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture from 2003 to 2007.

A total of $5,892.46 in taxes are due, and $16,260.85 is due in penalties and interest, according to a city staff report.

All of the properties had delinquent taxes at the time the city bought them, said City Manager Dave Parsons. He said he didn’t know why the taxes weren’t paid at the time of closing, but it appears those parts of the deals “slipped through the cracks.”

Most of the purchases took place in 2003, said Parsons, who wasn’t yet a city employee at the time.

Parsons said the city never got a tax bill for the properties until the city got a “final warning” about the taxes on March 22 from Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, LLP, Nueces County Tax Attorneys. They were warning that litigation was possible.

The city never got a notice before because of a glitch in the county’s system that prevented cities from getting tax bills for municipally owned land. (By state law, city governments don’t have to pay property taxes.) A recent county audit caught the problem.

The city acquired 473 other properties to create the nature preserve, but no tax problems are associated with those, Parsons said. Hundreds more acres of the preserve are leased to the city by the Texas General Land Office.

The Port Aransas City Council on May 19 voted 6-0, with council member Beverly Bolner absent, to direct Parsons to negotiate with the county on the amount to be paid.

Parsons said he believes there’s a “good chance” the city won’t have to pay penalties and interest.



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