WALHALLA — The Constitution Party candidate for Oconee County Treasurer thinks Greg Nowell, the incumbent treasurer, is off on his numbers when claiming Oconee taxpayers have been overcharged $72 million over the past four years.

Mountain Rest resident Susie Cornelius, who will vie Nowell’s seat during the fall election, believes taxpayers have been overcharged but not by the amount Nowell claims.

Nowell could have come out in defense of taxpayers a year ago, Cornelius said.

Nowell launched a bombshell last week by contending the county erred in not rolling back millage after values went up by virtue of a Duke Energy lump-sum payment of $24 million in 2006. Duke’s payment erased an $8 million under assessment from 2004-2006. The county treasurer thinks the higher value from Duke’s payment has been kept on the tax rolls. As a consequence, all county residents have overpaid on taxes to the tune of possibly $72 million.

Cornelius said this week Nowell could be off on his calculations because Duke’s payment in 2006 “washed out everything” that year. She said the county collected more revenue that year because property values were reassessed.

Unless Nowell presents more information, it would be difficult to quantify how much taxpayers have been overcharged, Cornelius said.

Nowell called the state Department of Revenue (DOR) on Monday to ask for a formal inquiry into his claims before he left on vacation. He will return next week.

Oconee employees and elected officials have rejected Nowell’s assertions. They also have said any DOR review would not delay the setting of a new millage rate or sending tax bills in the fall.

Cornelius is a familiar face around local government circles. In 2004, she filed a lawsuit to prevent the county from using taxpayers’ money to fund sewer projects in unincorporated areas. She prevailed in a state Supreme Court ruling in 2006.

Last year, Cornelius and others filed a lawsuit against the county, Seneca and Westminster challenging actions taken by those governments in creating the Oconee Joint Regional Sewer Authority. The lawsuit, in part, asks the court for a declaratory judgment that would keep Oconee from conveying assets to the new authority. A first hearing on the lawsuit is to be heard Sept. 16.

Cornelius said she thought taxpayers should have received a credit from Duke’s so-called windfall payment in 2006. She formally applied for a refund, but the state denied her claim citing case law that she could not get a refund based on an error to someone else’s millage or reassessment.

Cornelius said that Nowell, who was appointed in February of 2007 to finish out the unexpired term of former Treasurer Anne Dodd, should have come out with his claim last year.

“He should have worked and gotten the millage adjusted to reflect a credit to taxpayers,” Cornelius said. “He didn’t even raise the issue with the county council. I’m running for treasurer because I think I can do a better job.”