Nortex Times

Wichita County has not provided economic development money to the cities of Burkburnett and Wichita Falls, and two county officials are blaming each other for the mistake. 

Tommy Smyth, tax assessor and collector, said in an email to a Burkburnett official that his office did its part five months ago. However, auditor Deborah Stevens said her office has the checks ready for the cities and blames Smyth for the funds not being distributed, according to the Wichita Falls Times Record News. 

Smyth said he didn't know the cities didn't receive the payments, according to the newspaper. Additionally, Smyth said that after he sent reports to the auditor, it was the auditor's job to review them and send the payments to the Treasurer's Office. 

"Our office has been under the false impression that the city of Burkburnett and Wichita Falls had both been paid in this matter!!" Smyth said in an email. "Our original submissions to date have never been sent back to us for any re-work, corrections, amendments or revisions."

But in a statement, Stevens said Smyth doesn't have knowledge about tax increment financing, claiming his reports tend to have many errors when they are sent to her office, according to the Times Record News. TIF is how local governments finance development and make an investment, the Texas Comptroller's Office said. 

"The computation of TIF zone payments is a process that has not been well understood by Tax Assessor Tommy Smyth," Stevens said in a statement. "When the payment request came to the auditor's office last year, we found errors totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars."

According to Stevens, Smyth's reports would have had the county paying an extra $363,000. She also claimed Smyth took from May to November to send her office the reports, according to the Times Record News.

But Smyth claims he sent the reports to Stevens' office about five months ago. 

In his email, Smyth said "the textbook definition of 'convenient' to now almost five months later allege that something we provided her office with was somehow riddled with errors." Smyth said Stevens had the reports for five months and never contacted the Wichita County Tax Office to address the errors. 

Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom said he should have followed up on the situation and acknowledged that there is plenty of blame for everyone, according to the Times Record News. 

“Quite frankly in my mind, I should have followed up on it, but he probably should have followed up and called me and asked, 'Why do we not have this out?' ” Gossom said. “There’s enough guilt to go around."