Missouri's three appeals court divisions all have reached the same conclusion: Assessors in 16 Missouri counties didn't allow for depreciation costs when they set the 2013 values for Ameren Missouri's natural gas properties.
Both the St. Louis-based Eastern District on Tuesday and the Springfield-based Southern District last week agreed with the Western District's Sept. 26 decision and analysis, resulting in all 16 challenged assessments being sent back to the Tax Commission for recalculation of the taxable values.
The Western District's September ruling involved Ameren's appeal of Cole County Assessor Chris Estes' evaluation.
Cole County officials have said the difference between Estes' assessments and what Ameren said they should be means the county's various taxing entities could lose around $600,000 in revenue - with Jefferson City's Public Schools alone losing about $400,000 - if the courts ultimately agree with Ameren rather than Estes.
"The resolution of how depreciation should be calculated must first be determined in this case by the (State Tax) Commission in the exercise of its discretion," Judge Cynthia Martin wrote in the ruling.
The Western District last week denied a motion to rehear the appeal or to transfer the case to the Supreme Court; Cole County's lawyers were given until next Wednesday to file a direct appeal with the high court.
The basic issue is the same in all cases - only the calculations in the individual counties are different. So, if the Supreme Court accepts the appeal of the Cole County case, it also could take the other counties' cases and consolidate them into one.
Attorney Richard Reed, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, is the lead attorney for Cole County, but could not be reached for a comment Tuesday.
So far, none of the affected agencies have commented on the appeals courts' rulings.
Tim Tryniecki, one of the attorneys handling Ameren's case, told the News Tribune on Tuesday all three appeals courts have ruled assessors should have applied depreciation and they did not.
Tryniecki declined to discuss the specifics of the financial impact on Ameren.
But Tuesday's Eastern District ruling involving Cape Girardeau County said Assessor Bob Adams set an assessed property value almost twice what Ameren said it should have been.
In the Cole County case, Ameren said its assessed value was $6,559,522 for 2013. But Estes calculated an assessed value of $17,040,760.
"The appellate courts have sent these cases back to the Tax Commission to figure out what the amount of depreciation should be, for 2013," Tryniecki said.
"What they've said very clearly is that the top line (on the form) has to be Ameren's original costs. So, you start there and then take depreciation out of that number."
All three appeals court opinions noted the Tax Commission used a new form in 2013, with an instruction depreciation be calculated - but that the assessors in the 16 counties didn't include depreciation in their numbers.
"That top line, in most cases, is what the assessors said all the property was worth, with no depreciation," Tryniecki said, "so the assessments really will have to come down."
Ameren Missouri has natural gas distribution equipment in 25 counties and challenged its property assessments for 2013 (and since) in 16 of those counties, including Cole, Callaway and Moniteau counties in Mid-Missouri.
Right now, the cases for 2014, 15, 16 and 17 are moving separately but likely would be affected by the final ruling in the 2013 cases, Tryniecki said.
"There's a lot of moving parts to this," he said.