From the pages of
Sublette Examiner
Volume 3, Number 26 - September 25, 2003
brought to you online by Pinedale Online

Briefs

Crank released another defense agreement

Last week Wyoming Attorney General Patrick J. Crank released a confidential joint defense agreement that had been entered into between the State of Wyoming and Exxon Corporation regarding litigation involving gas production in Sublette County.

On Tuesday, Crank released a copy of another confidential joint defense agreement and a confidentiality agreement entered into between the State of Wyoming and Uinta County.

According to a press release from Crank: "These agreements are different from the earlier agreements in that the parties knew of their existence and they were agreements between the state and a county to coordinate tax collection efforts. Nonetheless, the Attorney General believes these types of agreements should be seldomly, if ever, entered into and should be fully disclosed."

The agreements between the State and Uinta County were entered into in cases involving mineral production by Amoco, Chevron and Union Pacific. The State and Uinta County have argued that the mineral production should be valued according to the "comparable value method," a valuation method that looks to other similarly situated minerals to gauge fair market value for state taxation purposes. The State Board of Equalization has agreed with the State and Uinta County that "comparable value" is an appropriate valuation method in the first case to come before the board. The decision of the board was appealed by the taxpayers to the state district court and that court has certified the appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court which has not yet formally accepted certification of the appeal. Three other cases with identical issues are still pending before the BOE.

Water development board

Although Sublette County has already made its appointments to the tri-county joint powers board for Green River Basin water development, the other two counties involved haven't yet done so.

Lincoln County Commission Chairman Deb Wolfley said that the commission is currently accepting applications for residents interested in serving on the board. Wolfley said the commission expects to make the appointments at the commission's Oct. 7 meeting.

Sweetwater County Commissioners will make their appointments on Oct. 7 as well. County officials reported that with the time period for submitting applications already closed, about a half-dozen applications were received.

Sublette County's appointments to the board include Randy Bolgiano and John Andrikopoulos.

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