Once again, the owners of the Montana Tunnels Mine have failed to honor an agreement to pay delinquent property taxes. As of May 15, the closed mine near Jefferson City owed the county $5,425,329.84 in back taxes, according to records in the treasurer’s office. The oldest unpaid taxes are from November 2009.
Back in January of this year, the Jefferson County Commission agreed to a request from the mine to set up a payment schedule that called for the first payment to be made by March with periodic payments due through 2021. As of Monday, no payments had been received this year. This is far from the first time the mine has failed to honor an agreement to get the taxes paid. But as the commissioners discussed in January, the county’s options to collect the unpaid taxes are limited.
The county could take a tax deed on the mine, but since the operating permit is separate from the property ownership, “Somebody could own a gold mine and not be able to operate it,” said Commissioner Leonard Wortman. He also expressed concern that the county could wind up with liability for environmental clean up at the mine if it takes over the property.
County Attorney Steve Haddon said, “I do not believe it’s in the county’s best interest to get into the chain of title on this thing.”
If the mine does not get back up and operating, said Wortman, “we’re never going to get any taxes on it.” As an attempt to entice the mine to come forward with some payments, the commission agreed to forgive some penalties and interest if the mine would make six payments at times agreed upon.
In January, over $1.8 million of the amount owing was in penalties and interest, and that amount has continued to grow. When deciding to try the latest agreement, the commission discussed at length the status of other property owned by the mine and possible ways to get some leverage. They also discussed the possibility of hiring a consultant to review options if the agreement did not stand up. The issue has not been back on the commission agenda since the mine missed its March payment date.
