Beeville Independent School District trustees have dropped their lawsuit against Bee County over the amount the school district was being charged to collect taxes.

“The litigation with the county was unfortunate, and extensive,” said Tom Beasley, vice president of the school board. “It was unavoidable.”

Superintendent Dr. John Hardwick Jr. said that they are now just waiting on the judge’s approval of the agreement.

That pounding of the gavel will mean the formal end of the lawsuit.

“At this point, that is a technicality,” Hardwick said.

Earlier this year, Bee County commissioners voted to accept the school district’s formula for calculating the cost of tax collection services.

The agreement doesn’t specify dollars. Hardwick said it specifies that the school district will pay 15 percent of half of what it takes to run that office.

The decision by commissioners in January to accept the district’s formula didn’t come quickly — it took an hour in executive session.

“This is not the ideal situation for us but in the spirit of cooperation and getting rid of the lawsuit I second the motion with the intent of ending this lawsuit, even though it is not the best situation for the county,” said Precinct 3 Commissioner Eloy Rodriguez during that Jan. 22 meeting. “Again, for the amount of money we are going to lose (in tax collection fees), in comparison to the amount of money we would have to pay out to an attorney, I think this is the right thing to do.”

On March 23, during the trustees’ meeting, Beasley said that they were dropping the lawsuit for the good of the community.

Beasley said that the amount the county was asking to collect taxes was “excessive — extraordinarily so in my opinion.”

However, by unanimous vote, the trustees ended the lawsuit.

“Bottom line is, I am going to vote in favor of this motion because we need to get this matter settled because of the expense to the taxpayers,” he said. “I think the fees under the settlement are excessive. Ultimately there is no place for the schools of Bee County to replace this money but from our budget.”

Board secretary Velma Elizalde said, “I think we are being more than fair.

“There were some things we could have pursued. Things that came to light during discovery.

“Because it ultimately affects the taxpayers we chose to move forward.”

Why the dispute?

The county charged the school district $19,000 to collect its 2008 property taxes. Commissioners voted last summer to increase the rate from $1.50 per parcel to $1.98 per parcel, which would have hiked BISD’s fee by an additional $7,000 or so to $26,000.

Commissioners say the higher rate ensures the county is covering its costs for tax collection services.

BISD has always maintained that it is being overcharged for tax collection services. School district officials believe BISD should be paying closer to $1 per parcel for tax collection services.

BISD filed a lawsuit against the county last September after the school district was notified of the rate hike and also notified that the county would not collect taxes for a lesser amount.