KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Kaufman County will see an approximate 15-percent increase in 2020 appraised values countywide despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Kaufman County will see an approximate 15-percent increase in 2020 appraised values countywide despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn.
That's because, as required by law, appraisal districts must appraise properties at 100% of their market value as of January 1st of each year.
Kaufman County Chief Appraiser Sarah Curtis tells inForney.com values are up in part because of the booming economy prior to and at the time of the January 1st deadline and more than $575 million in added value brought on by new construction countywide since last year's appraisal.
If the COVID-19 pandemic and fluctuations in the economy affect property sales and values, it will be reflected in the 2021 appraised values.
House District 4 State Representative Keith Bell penned a March 18th letter to Governor Greg Abbott requesting the suspension and delay of several requirements for county appraisal districts including, among other things, the suspension of 2020 reappraisal activities with the exception of applicable ownership updates, values added to the appraisal records due to new construction, and exemptions being modified, added or cancelled, or in the case of reductions in value — requests which were echoed by the state association of appraisal districts and elected officials throughout the state.
Bell also requested the suspension of Property Value Studies (PVS) in 2020 — which calculate the total taxable value in each school district to determine taxable wealth and, in the same, measures and appraisal district's performance. Then, according to Curtis, county appraisal districts must bring appraised values within those districts up to a 5-percent threshold of the PVC or risk reduced state funding.
Preliminarily, Curtis says there are already four districts, despite the latest value increases last year, whose value will not be within the 5-percent threshold — Kemp, Kaufman, Terrell, and Wills Point. The state PVCs in each of these cases have already been appealed, according to Curtis.
As of March 30, 2020, however, Bell tells inForney.com his requests to suspend certain appraisal district functions were not under consideration at this time.
On that date, Bell says he was advised, during a conference call with Abbott's Tax Policy Expert and Legislative Affairs Team as well as discussions with the State Comptrollers Office, that Abbott would not be suspending the requirements, nor was the Comptrollers Office requesting suspensions of certain Texas Property Tax Code Sections as requested in the letter.
Without legislative changes, the functions of the county appraisal districts must go on regardless of the state-declared disaster declaration. Ironically, the same disaster declaration triggered the removal of revenue caps which limited local taxing entities on the amount their tax rate could increase in any given year, which were established just last year in SB 2 during the 86th Legislative Session.
The question also remains that, if in the future Abbott does decide to suspend or freeze appraised values at the 2019 values, how would the state make up the difference in funding given the economic downturn and lost revenues to the state's-once booming oil and gas industry and sales tax collections — a pain surely to be felt by local taxing entities.
With budget talks expected to ramp up during the summer months and sales tax collection reporting two months behind, it remains to be seen if local taxing entities will feel the crunch or be able to provide much-needed tax relief to property owners. Curtis says preliminary values will be sent to the local taxing entities by May 1, for which, they will begin preliminary budget discussions.
In the meantime, Bell says some provisions have been negotiated at the local level, in Kaufman and Henderson Counties, to make it easier for property owners to protest their appraised values without additional risk of exposure to COVID-19 — A taxpayer can file a protest by phone, fax, or email and request a formal or informal hearing; an Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing can be completed by phone, teleconference, or in person later in the year; evidence can be sent to KCCAD via mail, fax, or email and will not require a notary to attest; and your evidence can now be used in a teleconference ARB hearing.
The Kaufman County Appraisal District has temporarily suspended face-to-face contact in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the office stated in a public notice, which encouraged the use of electronic and phone options.
Property owners will have 30 days from their notice of their appraised value to protest the valuation. Protests can be done either online, by mail, or delivered to the drop box at the front of the Appraisal District' Office located at 3950 South Houston Street in Kaufman, Texas, according to the notice.
Additionally, the online protest system will be open to all properties, instead of just homestead properties. According to the notice, you will be able to send and receive information via the online portal once an online protest has been filed.
"For the foreseeable future, we will not be scheduling in-person review board hearings or informal reviews," states the notice. "Right now, hearings will be by telephone or by affidavit."
Property owner's notice of protest forms, form 50-132, and affidavits of evidence, Form 50-283, among other forms, are available online at the State Comptroller's website and the Kaufman County Appraisal District's website, here.
The Kaufman County Appraisal District can be reached by phone at (972) 932-6081 or by email, for which contact information is available on the district's website, www.kaufman-cad.org.
HD State Rep. Keith Bell... by inForney.com on Scribd
