Attorney says city responsible for $900K a year in Mountain Water taxes
“Mayor John Engen’s bid to condemn Mountain Water Co. will cost the city of Missoula an estimated $900,000 a year in property taxes while the eminent domain case is in litigation in Missoula County District Court, according to a letter from a Mountain Water lawyer and data from the company.
“Under Montana’s laws governing eminent domain, it is now the responsibility of the city of Missoula to pay the property taxes that would have been paid by Mountain,” reads the April 28 letter from attorney John Alke of the Helena firm Hughes, Kellner, Sullivan and Alke.
Mountain Water pays an estimated $1.2 million in property taxes a year, with an estimated $300,000 going to the city of Missoula, according to the water utility. In late 2011, the global investment firm the Carlyle Group took ownership of Mountain Water and its parent company in California.”
Szpaller, Keila. Missoulian 29 April 2014.