Property tax bills may arrive before the storm debris is removed and homeowners will be upset having to pay for a full-valued house when it’s uninhabitable.
But state law requires all appraisals to be based on a property value of January 1 of the year.
Bridge City residents learned the tax law in 2008 after Hurricane Ike. Many homeowners had their bills delivered to FEMA trailers.
Tropical Storm Harvey “has been a tragedy,” said Mike Cedars, chief appraiser at the Orange County Appraisal District. But, he said, the law does not give the appraisal district to ability change values on homes.
The state Tax Code laws must be followed. Under the tax code, a property appraisal is based on the value of property on January 1 of the year in which the tax bills are sent, he said.
The tax rolls were certified on July 25 after giving a period for people to appeal new values placed on their property. Those appraisals are used to calculate the property taxes that will be owed to entities like Orange County, school districts, cities and special taxing districts. The special districts include the Orange County Drainage District, Orange County Port and Navigation District and four emergency services districts.
The taxing entities are in the final stages of adopting budgets and tax rates for the 2017-18 fiscal year that will start October 1. Schools districts started budgets on September 1 and have already set tax rates.
The entities have set their budgets based on the values “and they don’t want anybody monkeying with it,” Cedars said.
The tax code allows for a disaster area to have a reappraisal, but a new appraisal after damage will be pro-rated based on the date of the damage.
Cedars said if a property had a $100,000 appraisal in January and the property is now worth $60,000, the $40,000 loss will be adjusted. Based on the time of the storm, the $40,000 loss would be 34.5 percent of the year. The calculated adjustment in value would be $13,800, meaning the taxes would be paid on $86,200 valuation.
The owner would then pay $75 less on their county tax bill alone, based on a 54.4 cent per $100 valuation.
Cedars said if an entity wants a new appraisal, the entity would have to pay for it. The cost would be high. “We would almost have to go into each house” to see the condition, he said. “It could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it done.”
County Judge Brint Carlton has estimated that 65 percent of the properties across the county were damaged. Cedars said he agrees with the figure. He calculates 38,000 to 40,000 residences and businesses were damaged by Harvey.
The entities need the tax revenues to meet the budgets that have been calculated and prepared. “Each entity would have to reduce their budget” if a reappraisal was made.
Employees are the top expense for the public entities and decreases in revenue could lead to layoffs.
The entities are currently dealing with extra expenses like overtime for first responders and hourly personnel in public works departments. The entities also have to deal with damages to public properties like schools and sewer systems.
Cedars said new appraisals will be made again based on January 1, 2018, values. If a property hasn’t been fixed by that date, next year’s appraisals will be based on the condition of the property. He said the value on January 1, 2018, will last the whole year, even if a property has been restored or improved by February.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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