A bad oil and gas economy is creating some issues for Lacombe County. Since some companies have filed for bankruptcy, they aren't able to collect outstanding taxes on 19 accounts related to oil and gas wells, pipelines, and other facilities. 

Council has made a resolution through to their outstanding tax accounts, but it leaves them short over $164,000.

Council members felt this was their only option.

County Manager Tim Timmons says it’s unfortunate because in the long run that money could be needed somewhere but it will be marked as never collected in the first place.

“These are taxes that are owed to Lacombe County," he says, "at the end of the day there’s going to be a shortfall in our funding so it has to be taken care of somehow.”

Since the taxes are not tied to the land on which the improvements are located, there isn’t much they can do to receive help on this issue.

“It became evident that we wouldn’t be able to collect it, unlike property taxes that we levy on properties that are situated on land, there really is no process to recover the outstanding taxes.”

These cancellations, they say will be funded from the “Allowance for Uncollectable Taxes” account.

The county has been forced to do fix a similar problem in the past; the last time they cancelled taxes related to oil and gas tax accounts was in the spring of 2016.