Matagorda County Appraisal District v. Coastal Liquids Partners

We must decide whether salt dome caverns created to store liquid hydrocarbons may be appraised and taxed separately from the surface land above them. The question has been here before, but we did not reach it in Coastal Liquids Transportation, L.P. v. Harris County Appraisal District because the taxpayer lacked capacity. 1 Predictably, given the millions of tax dollars involved, 2 the question has surfaced again.

In this case, the taxpayer Coastal Liquids Partners, L.P. challenged the Mata- gorda County Appraisal District’s valuation of the Hiltpold # 1 and Hudson # 3 caverns at almost $2…