Last month there was an article in the MR-T which told how the Midland Central Appraisal District review board had agreed to lower by 25% the valuation of certain properties with contaminated well water, but the reduction would apply only those properties with owners who had protested the original valuations.
Others in the vicinity, according to the aforementioned article, would receive a 10% reduction in valuation but only if they had protested the original valuation.
That result, if it's still standing, is a reward for those who protested yet nothing for those who didn't. That doesn't seem fair to those who didn't protest since the appraised values were supposed to be the market values as of 1/1/09. And perhaps this is a good demonstration of the problem with local boards operating under their own guidelines.
There are probably countless scare stories that have come out of the hearings with the appraisal review board. Here's mine from a few years back, before the last boom.
There's a neighborhood condition which I had previously addressed with one of the appraisers, and he agreed to give me a discount due to that condition. That lasted a couple of years, then the discount disappeared without explanation. I filed a notice of appeal, and had a hearing with the review board. I explained about the condition that should have qualified for the discount and showed them photos of problems with the house that would be expensive to repair, for example, the place needed a new roof. They agreed to put back the old discount but ignored any physical problems with the property that in the real world would have reduced the market value.
This was before the recent housing boom, and anyone selling a house had to fix it up to get a buyer. The appraisal valuations were based on what comparable houses sold for during the previous year, but those houses were in tip top shape when they were sold. They had to be at that point in the market cycle. Once the owner had fixed up his/her property and sold it, that selling price became the new market value for appraisal district purposes. The houses down the street that needed repairs just got a new value as if those repairs had already been made.
The appraisal review board could not see any problem with that. The chairman of the board told me that his wife just got a new puppy, and he knew that he was going to have to get new carpet as a result. He shrugged and told me that I would get a new roof and repair the other problems with my house, and there would be no reduction to the valuation of my property due to those problems. Well, he was partly right, I did eventually get a new roof some years later and repaired some but not all of the problems. But what happened a few years later should have had no bearing on the market value as of the first day of the year when the appraisal was supposed to have been effective.
Constitutional Amendment #3 on the Texas ballot this November addresses standards and procedures for property tax appraisals, and if it passes, the Texas Constitution will be changed as follows:
ARTICLE 3. UNIFORM APPRAISAL STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES SECTION 3.01. Section 23(b), Article VIII, Texas Constitution, is amended to read as follows: (b) Administrative and judicial enforcement of uniform standards and procedures for appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes shall be [, as] prescribed by general law [, shall originate in the county where the tax is imposed, except that the legislature may provide by general law for political subdivisions with boundaries extending outside the county]
Read all the amendments and see some explanations in analyses09.pdf. And as to Amendment #3, what is does is simply give the legislature the power to make laws regarding the appraisal districts' practices and procedures. Those laws aren't even on the drawing board yet.
We know that there are problems with the current process, but if this amendment passes will the Texas legislature step up and come up with something that will help property owners? Would they be able to resist lobbying by municipalities? The question voters will have to ask themselves is whether they trust the state legislature or their own local appraisal board members more. Those of us who don't trust either of them will have a tough call.
If our government really wanted to help the citizens it would grant voters the right to put their our own initiatives and referenda on the ballot.
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