While there is a differing opinion as to who is responsible, most will agree that a 10% to 15% increase in property values have given Freestone County landowners sticker shock when opening their letter from the Appraisal District, showing what they can expect to pay in property taxes this year.
Freestone County Judge and Commissioners Court issued a resolution in early April to freeze property valuations from the prior year, in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, to reflect an actual fair market value of property “in true economic sense.”
Instead, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and stage congressional members made an appeal to each local taxing entity – county, city, school, hospital and special districts – to lower tax rates.
Tax rate and valuation are two very different things, but together they decide how much homeowners pay annually in property taxes.
“I am value, and the taxing jurisdictions are rate,” explains Freestone County Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Bud Black.
He continues with a basic (and highly simplified) formula that shows that Value x Tax rate = Tax Amount.
His office only handles the first number – valuation – or in the words of State Representative Cody Harris – District 8, “The appraisal district’s value is supposed to reflect the actual market value of your property.”
Property values are set on January 1st of each year, and this year there was one difference that greatly mattered.
“This year, we had to go through and readjust our cost schedule for some things, primarily because we haven’t touched the commercial price schedules,” Black states, “While we were at it, we updated ALL of the cost schedules.”
Black further explains that a 10% to 15% increase is to be expected this year, but advised land owners who see a greater increase than that, to contact his office.
He included in his explanation that the State of Texas annually reviews the appraisals, and they are looking for there to be a confidence interval showing properties to be in the 95% to 105% range.
Confidence interval, in statistics, refers to the probability that a population parameter will fall between two set values.
Importantly, when values fall short of this, school funding is affected. Wortham has fallen short for three years, and Fairfield for one.
As one of the steps to try to help the citizens of Freestone County during the global pandemic, Black requested that the County Commissioners and County Judge Linda Grant issue a Resolution to freeze on property tax appraisal valuations, which they did.
This would have made property valuations to remain the same as last year’s (January 1, 2019.)
“And he said no, emphatically said no several times,” Chief Appraiser Black explained in regards to Governor Abbott’s response.
When asked about the possibility of a property valuation freeze during a Television interview on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 Governor Abbott responded with, “What determines how much a person pays in taxes is the tax rate set by the local taxing entities. As a result we are not going to make any type of state law modifying what a person’s home value is worth.”
State Representative Harris took to social media in response to citizenz expressed outrage and frustrations over the appraised values, “The real culprit effecting how much you pay in taxes is the tax rate, which is set by your county court, school district, city council, etc. If these entities set a zero tax rate, you would pay zero in property taxes, regardless of your appraised value.”
In a response, Freestone County Sheriff Shipley expressed to Harris that, “If you can’t sale your home or property for what it’s appraised for and taxed then there is an obvious issue in how state appraisals work.”
Chief Appraiser Black asks that people contact the office, via 903-389-5510, general.info@freestonecad.org, or visit their website at freestonecad.org to fill out the inquiry form, to discuss their property values before filing an appeal.
“Some of the assumptions that we had to make and some of the appraisals that we did may be adjustable if we are able to talk to the property owner and get a little bit more information from them,” Black clarifies, “We are encouraging people to call us and communicate through email.”
