Cole County Assessor Chris Estes and 15 other Missouri county assessors didn't allow for depreciation costs when they set the 2013 values for Ameren Missouri's natural gas properties, a state appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.
"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 at the end of a 41-page opinion for the Western District appeals court.
Cole County officials have said the difference between Estes' assessments and what Ameren says 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 agreed with Ameren rather than Estes.
Neither the lawyers handling the county's case nor the school district commented on the case Tuesday.
Ameren Missouri has natural gas distribution equipment in 25 different counties - and it challenged its property assessments for 2013 (and since) in 16 of those counties, including Cole, Callaway and Moniteau counties.
A main issue before the courts was the Tax Commission's decision to change its forms in 2013 from those used previously, including an instruction to county assessors "to arrive at a reasonable level of depreciation" for the natural gas equipment.
"Some of the county assessors met with Ameren and expressed the belief that Ameren's 'original costs' (on Ameren's reporting form) already factored in depreciation, such that multiplying the 'Yearly Totals' by the depreciation percentages shown on the Commission's form had resulted in double depreciation," Martin wrote.
"Ameren assured the county assessors that no depreciation was reflected in its ('Yearly Total') numbers."
But the court found 16 assessors, including Estes, didn't account for any depreciation - and "despite this conceded failure, the Commission affirmed the assessors' valuations as sustained by the boards of equalization. In so doing, the Commission committed legal error."
Tuesday's appeals court ruling mentioned Ameren's issues with all 16 counties but focused on the Cole County case.
Martin noted Ameren had reported the original cost of its real property, operating in Cole County as of Jan. 1, 2013, as $53,252,364 - and, after calculating the depreciation percentages, reported a total value of $20,498,505.
Ameren said its Cole County assessed value was $6,559,522 for 2013.
But in not accepting Ameren's numbers, the court said Estes instead calculated an assessed value of $17,040,760 - more than $10 million above Ameren's calculation.
The company first challenged the assessments with each county's Board of Equalization, then appealed to the Tax Commission, where the cases were consolidated.
After the commission accepted the counties' figures in an October 2015 order, Ameren filed a lawsuit in the circuit courts for each county where it was challenging assessments.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled in Estes' favor Aug. 1, 2016.
Ameren appealed Beetem's ruling and others to the state Supreme Court, arguing the high court had exclusive jurisdiction under the Missouri Constitution because the appeals involved a revenue statute.
But, Martin wrote in a footnote to Tuesday's Western District appeals court ruling: "The Supreme Court disagreed, and transferred the matters to the intermediate appellate districts, with each assuming jurisdiction over the appeals involving counties within their boundaries. The Eastern and Western Districts have stayed all but one appeal filed in their district (and) the Southern District has consolidated two appeals filed in its district."
Because of that split, Tuesday's Western District ruling in the Cole County case is only the first to be decided at the appeals level.
"Though the amounts in dispute vary in these cases," the Western District court said, "the issues on appeal are not materially distinguishable."
The St. Louis-based Eastern District will hear oral arguments in Ameren's appeal from Cape Girardeau County on Oct. 5, and the Springfield-based Southern District will hear the appeals from Bollinger and Butler counties Oct. 26.
The cases still might wind up in front of the seven-judge Supreme Court.