Got my appraisal in today, went up exactly 10%. Search of neighboring properties has my house on average appraisal wise.

Any reasonable way to fight this or just part of "owning" a house?

Is it worth what it's appraised at? If not, you can always provide a fee appraisal to the CAD.

nrm02 said:

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Got my appraisal in today, went up exactly 10%. Search of neighboring properties has my house on average appraisal wise.

Any reasonable way to fight this or just part of "owning" a house?

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Generally, it's a complete waste of time and money!

It is based on the appraisal for this year. Another 10% next year and it won't be.

Great. Another 'property tax is legalized theft' thread.

Don't read it, bud. Legit question for those that may have tried in the past.

My son has acreage in Uvalde County. The tax office valued a hunting blind at $20,000 saying it was a cabin. They use Google Earth according to the lady he talked to.

I'm going this weekend to take pictures of his $20k blind. Hopefully they will remove it.

I've said it before... The county budget has two parts. Bond obligations and M&O.

Bond obligations
The agencies with bonds and their bond payment obligations to the tax assessor, who sits down with the appraisal district. They determine a tax rate for each jurisdiction to cover the obligations. No more, no less. Those rates are then sent to the various taxing authority's to set the tax rate.

M&O
Maintenance and operation budgets cannot increase by more than 3% without specific voter approval. So again, the tax rate is set based on appraisals to meet budget obligations.

EVERYONE'S assessments are rising because the market value of your property is gong up. So without new/additional bonds or a voter approved budget increase, your tax rate will go down. Your tax bill will move by maybe a few bucks.

Good luck! I wonder what my chicken coop will add next year.

The guy in charge of property tax reform this session has a company that fights valuations, so this is never going to get fixed.

That, Sir, is a good explanation. Thank you

Go plead your case in front of your county appraisal review board. I served on ours for two years. We seldom, if any, turned down the request of a landowner. It is made up of regular folks, landowners and homeowners.
Most people are either too scared or too lazy to do it.

If it went up exactly 10%, you are likely looking at the "assessed value" and not the market value or appraised value. Often they will raise the market value/appraised value far more than 10%, clearing the way for multiple 10% annual increases in "assessed value" if you do not successfully protest that value lower.

How to protest

https://www.youtube.com/live/AykMs3fkGGE?feature=share

Kenneth_2003 said:

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I've said it before... The county budget has two parts. Bond obligations and M&O.

Bond obligations
The agencies with bonds and their bond payment obligations to the tax assessor, who sits down with the appraisal district. They determine a tax rate for each jurisdiction to cover the obligations. No more, no less. Those rates are then sent to the various taxing authority's to set the tax rate.

M&O
Maintenance and operation budgets cannot increase by more than 3% without specific voter approval. So again, the tax rate is set based on appraisals to meet budget obligations.

EVERYONE'S assessments are rising because the market value of your property is gong up. So without new/additional bonds or a voter approved budget increase, your tax rate will go down. Your tax bill will move by maybe a few bucks.

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There is probably not an ISD in the state that has lowered their tax rate in 10 years despite increasing values (on both existing properties and new properties). I think your missing something here. And ISDs are the taxing authorities that burden of property owners with the largest portion of their tax bill. Most schools are currently at the max tax rate the state allows. When the property values increase and the resulting revenue for that district increases, the only thing being reduced is the amount the state kick in to the district, not your tax rate decreasing. It is possible for the local school board to reduce the tax rate as they set it each year, but this very very seldomly, if ever, happens. And their M&O budget is approved by the school board each year following public hearing. A voter election is not required.

mrad85 said:

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My son has acreage in Uvalde County. The tax office valued a hunting blind at $20,000 saying it was a cabin. They use Google Earth according to the lady he talked to.

I'm going this weekend to take pictures of his $20k blind. Hopefully they will remove it.

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Years and years ago, the tax authorities appraised a very old poison ivy covered outhouse as a farm out building with a value of 6 grand In the 80s. House had city water and plumbing for over 20 years before.

Catag94 said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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I've said it before... The county budget has two parts. Bond obligations and M&O.

Bond obligations
The agencies with bonds and their bond payment obligations to the tax assessor, who sits down with the appraisal district. They determine a tax rate for each jurisdiction to cover the obligations. No more, no less. Those rates are then sent to the various taxing authority's to set the tax rate.

M&O
Maintenance and operation budgets cannot increase by more than 3% without specific voter approval. So again, the tax rate is set based on appraisals to meet budget obligations.

EVERYONE'S assessments are rising because the market value of your property is gong up. So without new/additional bonds or a voter approved budget increase, your tax rate will go down. Your tax bill will move by maybe a few bucks.

---

There is probably not an ISD in the state that has lowered their tax rate in 10 years despite increasing values (on both existing properties and new properties). I think your missing something here. And ISDs are the taxing authorities that burden of property owners with the largest portion of their tax bill. Most schools are currently at the max tax rate the state allows. When the property values increase and the resulting revenue for that district increases, the only thing being reduced is the amount the state kick in to the district, not your tax rate decreasing. It is possible for the local school board to reduce the tax rate as they set it each year, but this very very seldomly, if ever, happens. And their M&O budget is approved by the school board each year following public hearing. A voter election is not required.

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Our ISD has dropped the tax rate every year because they have to. 2021 was 1.40% and we paid $4,868.39. 2022 was 1.26% and we paid $4651.74. Full 10% homestead increase. Our entire tax bill was about $600 lower this year versus last year.

So it does drop but it's still at the maximum allowable rate. Landlords are getting bent over though.

I think you may be combining M&O and I&S rates together to get $1.4. If they gained values, or paid off debts (bonds), their I&S may have dropped but I suspect their M&O did not.
I should have clarified the M&O is seldom ever dropping.

nrm02 said:

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Got my appraisal in today, went up exactly 10%. Search of neighboring properties has my house on average appraisal wise.

Any reasonable way to fight this or just part of "owning" a house?

---

Last year I lowballed Travis County for the eFile hearing. They denied it. I never scheduled the informal because they made it super confusing. Honestly I was going to give up messing with it and just left it at them denying the eFile. In July they dropped a formal protest date on me for mid August. Then like two days before the formal hearing they gave me an offer unsolicited lower than my original lowball offer. I'm going to try this again this year to see what happens. There are too many investors in this county for them to deal with.

Martin Cash said:

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Great. Another 'property tax is legalized theft' thread.

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No, it's another, "I want cops, courts, and roads but don't want to pay for them," thread.

Also, note that I said their Tax rate (should have clarified M&O) is at the max allowed by the state. Up through 2018, that was $1.17 (if a TRE) had been passed. HN3 in 2019 brought about a compression of this to $1.0834 by 2022. So, anything above that must be I&S. So, your district's. M&O rate may still be at the max.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Martin Cash said:

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Great. Another 'property tax is legalized theft' thread.

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No, it's another, "I want cops, courts, and roads but don't want to pay for them," thread.

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My property tax bill doubled in less than a decade.

Whatever the specific mechanics being used in each case: some jurisdictions are using appraisal raises to saddle their residents for ever increasing tax burden.

If you don't experience that: congrats. But that doesn't discount that it's a real problem for others.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Martin Cash said:

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Great. Another 'property tax is legalized theft' thread.

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No, it's another, "I want cops, courts, and roads but don't want to pay for them," thread.

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Statists.

When you hire "professional" firms to protest property taxes they have success more often than not. That's true even when the tax authorities appraisal is justifiable.

The "professional" protesting firms are often comprised of ex-government employees who worked on property appraisals. They're friendly with current government employees who hope to one day work at the professional protesting firm. With a wink and nod your protest is successful and the "professional" firm wins on your behalf. You never would have been successful independently protesting even if the same evidence was presented.

I pay a fee to the firms because their relationships will trump any argument that I could put forward to reduce my property value.

If you can't beat 'em join em.

Gunny456 said:

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Go plead your case in front of your county appraisal review board. I served on ours for two years. We seldom, if any, turned down the request of a landowner. It is made up of regular folks, landowners and homeowners.
Most people are either too scared or too lazy to do it.

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Must be nice. Our appraisal board is made of government sycophants, such as a superintendent's wife, etc. They have no incentive to lower taxable value for anyone.

Catag94 said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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I've said it before... The county budget has two parts. Bond obligations and M&O.

Bond obligations
The agencies with bonds and their bond payment obligations to the tax assessor, who sits down with the appraisal district. They determine a tax rate for each jurisdiction to cover the obligations. No more, no less. Those rates are then sent to the various taxing authority's to set the tax rate.

M&O
Maintenance and operation budgets cannot increase by more than 3% without specific voter approval. So again, the tax rate is set based on appraisals to meet budget obligations.

EVERYONE'S assessments are rising because the market value of your property is gong up. So without new/additional bonds or a voter approved budget increase, your tax rate will go down. Your tax bill will move by maybe a few bucks.

---

There is probably not an ISD in the state that has lowered their tax rate in 10 years despite increasing values (on both existing properties and new properties). I think you're missing something here. And ISDs are the taxing authorities that burden of property owners with the largest portion of their tax bill. Most schools are currently at the max tax rate the state allows. When the property values increase and the resulting revenue for that district increases, the only thing being reduced is the amount the state kick in to the district, not your tax rate decreasing. It is possible for the local school board to reduce the tax rate as they set it each year, but this very very seldomly, if ever, happens. And their M&O budget is approved by the school board each year following public hearing. A voter election is not required.

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You're 100% wrong. Almost all, if not all of them, have lowered it because they're limited by the state with compression applying to how much they can set the tax rate relative to the appraisal values without sending it to a vote. With the addition of new bonds (for buildings and such) having to be voter approved, if your rate hasn't lowered you can thank your local voting base for the increases, not the ISD's.

Appraisals rising has meant a steady decrease in the M&O tax rate for virtually every school district in the state. They're still getting the amount of money they were 5 years ago, usually with nominal M&O increases related to COLA but at a much lower rate than the books showed in the past.

Fun fact: the state won't let them lower it by too much either or they start punishing the districts by clawing back on the state funds they send to the districts. Austin drives the vast majority of property bills in the state these days and the Republican state reps are neck deep into it as well as the dems.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Martin Cash said:

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Great. Another 'property tax is legalized theft' thread.

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No, it's another, "I want cops, courts, and roads but don't want to pay for them," thread.

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I want to pay for them….and I want everyone else to pay for them too which is why I support lower property taxes and a state sales tax instead. While we're at it, let's reduce grifts, largesse, and administrative waste. Try being good stewards of my money if you want more of it every year.

I understand. Back in 2005-2007 the max allowed M&O was 1.50. Then legislation compressed it down to 1.40. At that time a TRE was popsicle (by election) which would allow an additional .13. So, Conroe never passed a TRE, so their M&O has been at the max allowed level the whole time. They haven't been lowering it because they had extra money.

These threads make my head spin as an appraiser.

You guys get all tangled up about your assessed value, but when an appraiser shows up to do your refinance appraisal you are giving me two sheets of BS repairs "improvements" and push for every nickel.

Then you ask me as I'm leaving "you don't give this to the tax office do you?"

All that aside, if the commercial property and high value houses were assessed at the same percentage of actual value as Joe Sixpack, we would all have lower taxes.

No, with all due respect, you are wrong.
The district tax rate is comprised of M&O and I&S. The latter is for bonds and that takes voter approval, to your point. But I am talking about M&O. Which, also to your point, has been compressed by law. My point is that almost every district has had their M&O tax rate at the max allowed by the state.

Furthermore, each year, when that have a surplus, they add that to their "Fund Balance" or make capitol improvements.

Their M&O has gone down due to law compressing it, not de to boards adoption a lower one because they need the additional funds from increased values.
Again, as their locale revenue increases (be cause of increase values), the state portion they receive goes down.

Now most schools, back in 2007-2009, held TRE elections, asking voters to adopt an additional .13 rate ti they M&O.

Law has compressed the tax rate form a max of 1.5 proper ton2008, down to 1.04 until 2020 when it went down again to .93 and now , in 2022 to .9164. All without the TRE.
Any school with an M&O tax rate today above .9164 has voter approved TRE which can get them another .13.

Again, it is possible for the board to local drop M&O tax rates or raise them within the limits of the law WITHOU voter elections (not counting TRE). However, it seldom happens. It did skittle more back prior to the 2006 timeframe when compression began.

Here is a link to research regarding the Hb3 compressions.

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/texas-public-school-finance-overview-presentation-2022-23.pdf

Quote:

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There is probably not an ISD in the state that has lowered their tax rate in 10 years despite increasing values (on both existing properties and new properties).

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Except that's not how you worded it. Boards have to approve and vote on lowered tax rates to fit within the compression limits, so yes, boards all across the state have lowered their rates for years now as appraisals have risen. That's why everyone said you were incorrect.

Posts like the OP happen every year by people who have zero clue how the local tax rates are set. They get their new appraisal value from the local appraisal district that also has the estimate of their taxes based on last years rate. Those same property owners flip out thinking this is their new tax bill despite the fact that the local entities haven't met yet to set the tax rate based on the new appraisal amounts. The local entities then meet in late summer, typically lower the rates to reflect the increased appraisals, and the actual tax bills come out in October/November with an amount that's probably within a few dollars of the previous year barring a new bond being voted in.

A few years ago I protested and did my own homework. I was able to not only get my value down, I had it lowered from where it was appraised the previous year, which apparently is unheard of. I was still upset because I thought they still overvalued my home, but overall it was a huge win on my part. To top it off, the appraiser that went up against me was super pissed and grabbed up all her papers then stormed out of the room after the committee's judgement.

Since then (maybe 2019?) I've had a 10% increase each year, but at least the starting point for those increases has been much lower.

Earlier, someone suggested board slower the M&O year by year according to appraisal increasing (regardless of compressions by legislation) and then raises the M&O if needed by voter election. This is not the case.
Boards have adopted lower rates (M&O) in recent years and back in he middle 2000's as a result of being forced to by legislation. Outside of that, they early (extremely) have adopted a rate lower than the max, if one did, that one could raid it back up to the max without voter election the next year. The only caveat since the middle 2000's has been whether or not a school passes (through voters) a TRE which is done once and gives them an additional .13.

Sorry for not wording it well.

ETA:
I served as a school board member for 4 terms. I know all that you said about the appraisal and then the boards meeting later in the summer is accurate. What I find inaccurate about this is that they just lower the tax rate. They don't, instead they adjust their budget to meet the revenue.

I'd love to see a school that has an M&O below the cap allowed by law today. Again, todAy that cal is .9134 (not including a TRE).