May 13, 2009 – The 2006 property tax bills are due July 1, Gov. John deJongh Jr. said in a news release issued Wednesday.
The governor issued an executive order setting the date.
According to the press release, the bills are delinquent if they're not paid by July 31. Property tax owners have until Aug. 14 to file an appeal.
In theory, those 2006 bills were due in 2007, but the government has been mired in a U.S. District Court case brought by a group of St. Thomas business owners who said the government unfairly taxes businesses in a different way than residential properties.
A 2000 decision in the case eventually resulted in a court-ordered property revaluation, but residents continued to pay property taxes based on the 1998 values. The government hasn't sent out any property tax bills since those issued for 2005.
Acting Tax Assessor Bernadette Williams said the 2006 bills are based on property values determined under the District Court revaluation.
The 2006 bills went out starting in August 2008, but former Tax Assessor Roy Martin said in November 2008 that residents should ignore the due date because of ongoing court issues.
As for the 2007 property tax bills, which in theory were due out in June 2008, Williams said they're being processed.
"We're hoping to have them out by August," she said.
And the 2008 bills, theoretically due out in June?
"Sometime next year," Williams said.
Williams referred questions about the still unsettled District Court case to Attorney General Vincent Frazer. He did not return a phone call requesting comment on how the government could send out the tax bills with the case unsettled.
The news that a due date was set for the tax bills didn't sit well with Myrtle Barry, who heads the St. John-based V.I. Unity Day Group's tax committee.
"There is still a court issue active. They're only permitted to issue bills at the 1998 level," she said.
She said there are still outstanding issues to be settled in the District Court case. Barry said they concern what she said was "flawed" revaluation process, the backlog at the Board of Tax Review and the fact that the Finance Department hasn't paid refunds on successfully appealed cases.
"Which it can't do because the appeals are not completed," Barry said.
The issue has been in and out of the courts for several years with filings on both sides of the 2000 District Court decision.
Additionally, the Unity Day Group filed suit in April 2008 in District Court because many St. John residents said the island's property revaluations are too high. The suit essentially asks that the Tax Assessor's Office start over with its property revaluation process and not assess or collect taxes until the situation is resolved. The suit requests temporary and injunctive relief.
Barry said that case is still pending.
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