Bexar County will grant one-year appraisal reprieve to property owners who successfully contested a valuation – September 10, 2024
Newly elected members of the Bexar Appraisal District’s board of directors secured one major change in this year’s appraisal process: giving residential property owners who’ve successfully contested their valuation a one-year reprieve from having their property reappraised.
The change won’t apply to properties that made new improvements during that time, or properties that have decreased in market value since the last appraisal.
“It’s a simple change, and it’s the number one complaint among the voters and the taxpayers,” said Robert Bruce, who was elected to the board in July and proposed the idea on Tuesday.
“They go down [to the appraisal district], they make the same argument, they get the same reduction,” Bruce said. “All I’m saying is, ‘Hey, you did it this year. You ought to get a pass for at least one year and not have to go do a repeat performance.’”
The idea was approved unanimously by the nine-member board, which rejected a separate proposal to require higher evidence for increasing a valuation by more than 5% in a single year.
Both votes came as the board approved the county’s overall appraisal policies for the next two years — a process that in the past had been uneventful, before the Texas Legislature added new elected positions to the boards of large counties’ appraisal districts.
But this year, a movement to reconsider appraisal district procedures started in Tarrant County, which approved major changes after conservatives swept the county’s appraisal board races in the spring.
Tarrant County moved to every-other-year appraisals for residential properties and will now require the appraisal district to provide additional evidence if it intends to raise a residential valuation by more than 5% in a single year.
Both moves were aimed at reining in rapidly rising appraisals, but drew criticism from school districts and municipal governments affected by the changes who say it will force higher tax rates and shift a higher tax burden onto lower-income residents.
Bexar County also added some new conservative voices in its appraisal district races this year, one of whom sought to place Tarrant County’s same policies on the agenda for a vote last month.
That prospect drew complaints from several school districts, including Northside ISD, which turned out to Tuesday’s meeting to discourage the board from approving them.
But after it became clear he wouldn’t have the votes for every-other-year appraisals, Bruce said he narrowed the proposal to apply to only people who successfully contested their appraisal in the past year.
“We’re trying to move the ball,” he said of his new plan.
Bruce also put Tarrant’s plan to require more evidence for a residential valuation to be increased by more than 5% on the agenda in Bexar County, but it was tabled unanimously, amid concerns about whether it’s legal.
Credit: Andrea Drusch – San Antonio News Report – September 10th, 2024