(ROCKWALL, TX – May 18, 2016) The Rockwall City Council held a swearing-in ceremony for three returning council members during its regular meeting on Monday, May 16. John Hohenshelt (Place 2), Dennis Lewis (Place 4), and Mike Townsend (Place 6) each took a new oath of office from City Secretary, Kristy Cole, to begin serving their additional two-year terms. After the oath of office, the City Council voted unanimously to appoint Mike Townsend as the new Mayor Pro-Tem, replacing Dennis Lewis, who has held the role since January 2015.
City council places two, four and six were all up for reelection this year. The election, scheduled for May 7, was cancelled because the three incumbents were unopposed. Cancellation of the election resulted in a savings of about $11,000 to local taxpayers.
The city council also welcomed an appointment with Patricia Davis, chief appraiser of the Rockwall County Appraisal District, to hear an explanation and discuss recent countywide increases in assessed property value appraisals.
Davis explained to the council how the appraisal district determined the land values using the abundance of sales information they were able to collect to determine the total market value of the properties they assessed.
“One of the things we’re taught in appraisal is that when you have an abundance of sales, abstraction is probably the best way to determine what the land value is,” Davis said. “So if you have a total market value, which is what the state guides us on but we’re also supposed to be at 100 percent market value or total value, then we have to break that down between improvement, which is any structures on that property, and land. By the abstraction, you would take the improvement costs (less depreciation), and when you know there’s a sale of a certain number, the only other place for the money to go is to the land value. And that is perfectly acceptable. There’s counties around here that have used that for a number of years. We just probably haven’t had the sales information to allocate that way.
“This year the land values increased significantly. However, your total market value probably did not go up that much unless you lived in one of the areas that was more desirable.”
According to Davis, residential property owners who wish to protest their appraisal values must do so before May 31, and have several options available to appeal their appraisal value. They can file a request to protest online from the Central Appraisal District’s website, rockwallcad.com or call their office to set up an informal meeting with an appraiser. If they still disagree with the value after the informal, they can schedule a formal hearing before the Appraisal Review Board. If they are still unhappy with the ARB’s decision, they have the option of arbitration or going straight to the district court and filing a lawsuit.
Using a recent appraisal for an undisclosed property located within Rockwall as an example, Mayor Jim Pruitt questioned Davis as to what the options are for those who have seen a large increase in their property values who don’t protest those values this year.
“You can see that the appraised value on this property is $399,674,” Pruitt said. “And that means that this property is limited to a 10 percent increase next year. The real value or total market value is $519,140. If that person does not protest right now, their value is going to go up – and this is a 120 percent increase – it’s going to go up 10 percent next year, because that’s what is limited by law. Then it’s going to go up 10 percent that next year because it’s limited by law. In that third year their property is going to go up 100 percent. Is that correct?”
“Well, yes sir, depending on what the analysis for the market is for that year,” Davis said.
“You’ve acquiesced that the value is $519,140 to this piece of property,” Pruitt continued. “So if you don’t protest that now, you can’t go back next year and protest it again, that that’s not the value of your property?”
“No, you could go back and protest it again.”
“How can you, if you’re not reappraising your property?”
“Each year stands on its own. So even though it’s the same value you still have the right each year to protest.”
“Right, but you don’t have much of a leg to stand on if you’ve already acquiesced that your property is worth $519,000 this year.”
“It might not be worth that much next year. It depends on the sales information that we have to use to do our analysis with.”
“And so you’re saying that you will not make the argument at the Appraisal Review Board that this property next year is worth $519,000 because the person did not protest it the year before?” Pruitt asked.
“It might be worth that, but we’re not going to say that they can’t protest it because they didn’t protest it the year before,” replied Davis. She also added that they don’t have to send out notice of appraised value to every property owner unless the property went up $1,000 or more.
Councilman Kevin Fowler expressed his concern with where the appraisal district obtains their sales information, to which Davis replied that they get that information from property owners, closing statements, and fee appraisers. She also said websites such as Zillow list the selling prices of homes.
“But you still may not know the actual sales price,” Fowler said. “My point is you may be using inflated numbers, because if I list my house for a million dollars, and I sell it for $100,000, that’s a big difference. I’m just saying that market value is a nebulous term and it’s hard to truly find what a home actually sold for, because that’s not disclosed and even in public records that’s redacted sometimes.”
Councilman David White said even more important than the appraised value is the tax rate, and that it all comes down to how much the taxing entity decides to take from the citizens.
“The real kicker on this is not necessarily the appraised value of your house,” he said. “What’s really important is the tax rate set by this council. So here’s the bonus to your value going up: your tax rates should go down. Maybe not the school district, but the city and the county I expect will see a lower tax rate. The check that you write might go up, go down or stay the same. But your tax impact cash wise shouldn’t be as big a sticker shock as say your appraised value, because our tax rate can go down without us changing the cash value that we actually collect.”
Davis said the district will also redo its analysis of a neighborhood if several of that neighborhood’s property owners protest their appraisal values.
“So if you find that you’re wrong on the appraisal values in a neighborhood, are you going to send out new tax notices to everyone else in that neighborhood who’s already received their tax notice and didn’t protest it?” Pruitt asked.
“We cannot send new notices,” Davis said.
“But are you going to lower their assessed value for the whole neighborhood unilaterally?”
“Yes we are, and the information is on the website so they can see it. It’s updated I think every night.”
Davis confirmed that the district has already made some neighborhood-wide changes, which can be viewed on the district’s website.
The council took no action following the discussion.
Story and photos by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News editor.
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