County forgives $27K interest

by Cat Urbigkit

The Sublette County Commission held a telephone conference call Tuesday with representatives from Devon Energy to hear that company's request for a tax abatement to forgive interest due.

Sublette County Treasurer Roxanna Jensen said mineral tax was reported, billed and paid in the wrong district. The Wyoming Department of Revenue changed the tax due to reflect a different district that had a different mill levy.

Jensen rebated Devon's $41,772.92 check for the taxes due in the wrong district, then sent out a bill for the entire amount due to the other district, along with interest calculated from when the taxes were first due.

"The part that we do take exception to is the interest calculation," explained Devon's Jeff Trevillion Tuesday afternoon.

Trevillion said the billing included $27,500 in interest on top of the $41,889.23 in taxes due.

After briefly conferring about the issue, the commission suggested that if Devon would pay the full amount of the taxes due by Dec. 31, the interest would be forgiven entirely.

When he told the company the commission's decision, Cramer said, "because Sublette County is friendly ... to the industry," no matter what they may have heard about the county's dispute with ExxonMobil, generating laughter on the other end of the line.

Cramer suggested that Devon be sure to mention that Sublette County had treated the company fairly, to which the Oklahoma City, Okla., officials responded that they certainly would.

Once the call was over, with both parties satisfied with the outcome, Commissioner Gordon Johnston said, "We just did the right thing."