Lake Monticello Service Co. v. Board of Supervisors

In this appeal of right from a decision of the State Corporation Commission (the Commission), we deal with a water and sewer utility company’s challenge to the Commission’s tax assessments. To decide the issue, we must resolve a conflict between the Commission’s evaluation method of cost-less-depreciation, producing values in excess of $6,900,000, and the evidence of market value produced by the taxpayer, Lake Monticello Service Company (the service company), showing that most of its properties have no value.

The development of Lake Monticello began a number of years ago. As a condition of…