Gevo to pay late fee

For the second time this year, a local business has missed a tax payment resulting in a penalty involving thousands of dollars.
Gevo Inc. of Luverne submitted its second half property tax payment to the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office a day after the Oct. 15 deadline. The $209,740 payment was made on Oct. 16 and was assessed an $8,362.24 late penalty.
On Tuesday, Nov. 5, a Gevo representative requested all or a portion of the late penalty returned.
“Basically we dropped the ball,” said Gevo’s Chris Ryan. “To our knowledge we have never paid our taxes late.”
County auditor-treasurer Ashley Kurtz confirmed after the meeting that Gevo has not missed a property tax payment since it began as Agri-Energy LLC in 1998.
Commissioners, however, have not granted abatement without qualifying factors or hardships as stipulated by state statute.
“Unless it (the missed payment) qualified under one of the criteria, it wouldn’t be eligible,” said County Administrator Kyle Oldre.
Because Ryan was unable to provide a qualifying factor, the abatement request was dismissed.
In June, Enel Green Energy North American, who operates Prairie Rose Wind Farm in northern Rock County, missed the annual May 15 production tax payment deadline.
Enel made the $891,531 payment on May 31 along with an 8-percent late penalty of $71,299.
Enel, however, has not formally made an abatement request to the county.
Both tax penalties have become property of the auditor-treasurer’s office.