West Virginia Coal Tax

My grandparents on my dad's side owned a cattle ranch in West Virgina in the 70's and 80's raising black angus cattle. My grandmother grew up in Harrison County with its capital in Clarksburg WV. Since that time my grandfather has passed on and sold the 1.14 sq miles but retained some of the deepest coal, lower kittaning as its known. There are multiple levels of deeded minerals underneath all of the land in West Virginia as any local could tell you. My grandmother and her great aunt have deep roots there and still own property and some local people still farm the land and raise cattle on it. There is a great story buried in this time in my grandparents life and Im only now getting most of the details... part of my coming of age has been paying taxes on the retained mineral rights and bearing witness to my grandmothers battle to keep the taxes from exploding 10,000% per year for the last few years. Below is a link to an article outlining the struggle between landowners and pols to find a happy medium between funding for state and landowners ability to pay!

I would love go explore Harrison county and meet some of the people that worked and lived near my grandparents. It is one of my life's easily attainable goals to just go and stand on the property my grandparents farmed.
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=52678

Confusion and anger over skyrocketing coal assessments and property tax bills caused hundreds of West Virginians to complain to state leaders. Now the state Tax Department has taken a step back, telling county assessors not to include geological information in this year's bill.

By CYNTHIA McCLOUD
For The State Journal






and a little history about west virginias coal industry / burden / godsend. ;-)

http://www.wvcoalmining.com/coal-mining/history-west-virginia-mineral-industries-coal