Slow Home Sales Kept Tax Appraisals From Rising More

Even So, District ‘Flooded with Protests’ 

Fayette County Appraisal District sent out property value appraisal notices on May 13. The deadline to protest tax appraisals is June 11.

“It’s not the increase we saw last year,” said Chief Appraiser Richard Moring. “Some areas are still more active than others. The total number of sales is down. The volume (of sales) is not there like we’ve seen the past couple of years. It was a seller’s market, and I think that slowed down.”

Public school districts rely heavily on property taxes for revenue, as does the county government. City governments depend on property taxes to a lesser extent since they collect a greater portion of revenue from sales taxes, utility rates and service fees.

Moring said he expects appraisals to increase slightly county-wide this year.

“It’s a little early, but I still suspect a slight increase above last year,” he said.

Texas passed a temporary 20 percent appraisal cap last year. The cap applies to commercial, mineral and residential properties that do not have a homestead exemption and are valued less than $5 million. The law prohibits appraisal districts from increasing values for those properties more than 20 percent in a year. The temporary cap will be in place for the next three years unless the Legislature decides to extend it before then.

Moring said the cap is part of the reason he does not expect a big jump in appraisals this year.

But with the protest period still ongoing, he said it’s too early to say how much of an increase it will be or how it will affect property tax revenue for the local taxing entities.

“We’re getting flooded with protests right now, as you can imagine, and I understand that,” he said. “The deadline is Tuesday, June 11, and I encourage people to protest if they feel their values are too high or if there are some issues we are not aware of. We’re doing our best to talk to people and communicate with them.”