OLIVIA -- As attorneys argued in a courtroom across the street, the Renville County Board of Commissioners informally gave its consent to add another $150,000 to the war chest in the ongoing tax dispute with the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative.
Commissioners discussed the escalating litigation costs at their meeting Tuesday in Olivia. The commissioners will need to formally approve the request at their May 13 meeting.
When they do, it will bring the county's legal costs for defending itself to more than $903,000. The litigation has reached the state's high court but has yet to be resolved. Five separate cases for taxes payable in the years 2004 through 2008 are still active in the court system.
The commissioners are wondering when it will be resolved.
"It's kind of like where's the end of the Iraq war,'' said Commissioner Ralph Novotny.
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Attorneys for both Renville County and the beet sugar cooperative are currently in District Court in Olivia, arguing over challenges the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative filed for property taxes it paid in 2007 and 2008. Similar challenges filed by the company for taxes in the previous three years have been heard in the Eighth Judicial Tax Court, the Court of Appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Those cases are either under appeal or remanded to the tax court for decisions on aspects of them.
District Judge Bruce Christopherson is hearing the most recent cases in a proceeding that began last week in the Renville County Courthouse and is expected to conclude at the end of this week. The judge has hinted that his decisions in the case may come only after the tax court has ruled on some of the issues in the earlier cases, County Attorney David Torgelson told the commissioners on Tuesday.
The sugar cooperative has also pressed its case in the Legislature. Sen. Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced legislation on behalf of the cooperative that would exempt from taxation as real estate the exterior bins, tanks and silos of the sugar processing facility.
The cases raise complex issues of tax law, but at their heart the cases challenge how the county assesses the sugar processing facility. The county values the property at more than $40 million for tax purposes. The co-op's annual property tax bill to the county, city of Renville and Renville County West School District exceeds $500,000.
The cooperative charges that the county places a much higher value on the sugar processing company's property than it does on other industrial properties. Its attorney called the company's assessment an "absolute grotesque disparity.''
Both sides are represented by attorneys well-known for tax law issues. Marc Manderscheid, of the Briggs and Morgan Law Firm, Minneapolis, is representing the county. Attorney Robert Hill, of Robert Hill and Associates, Eden Prairie, is representing the cooperative.
