'Unfair' appraisal led to win over property tax.
The city, county, school district and College of the Mainland will have to repay Valero about $4.8 million after a Galveston County jury agreed with the oil company’s argument that its Texas City refinery was overvalued on the tax rolls.
In 2011, the Galveston Central Appraisal District assessed three of Valero’s properties, which include the refinery, to have a taxable value of $526.8 million. Valero argued that appraisers did not fairly compare the refinery with other industrial properties in the city and that the value of the facility was actually $333.4 million.
