The Weirton Daily Times
As December sets in, West Virginia mineral rights owners can be assured of one certainty: receiving a notice in the mail of their new mineral rights valuation. And just as it’s a certainty that notice will arrive, it’s also clear that the valuation, as far as anyone can tell, continues to remain either inaccurate or wildly out of bounds.
That’s what you have to appreciate about government — make a major change riddled with mistakes and then put the burden on, in this case, the mineral rights owner to hopefully get it fixed. Or, as this issue also has taught us over the past two years, make a mistake, admit to that mistake, and then simply refuse to fix the problem.
This has been an ongoing issue for more than a year now. State tax department officials have admitted to deploying a mineral valuation system that didn’t accurately appraise mineral rights for all owners. They also changed entirely the way that system would assess mineral values.
Read more: https://www.weirtondailytimes.com/opinion/editorials/2024/12/ensure-mineral-appraisals-are-correct/
