The reappraisal movement might be picking up traction. From the InBox:
Spring Branch ISD Stands up for Taxpayers by Voting For Disaster Reappraisal
Senator Bettencourt lauds SBISD Trustees and asks where is Harris County, HISD, etc?
Houston, TX – In a unanimous vote at their October Board Meeting, Spring Branch ISD Trustees voted to conduct disaster reappraisals for those property owners impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Spring Branch ISD joins Fort Bend County, Montgomery County, Katy ISD, Willis ISD, the City of Shoreacres, etc that have already acted to provide impacted taxpayers with much needed relief. Notably, the vote by SBISD means on the same property tax bill, taxpayers will get relief from only the SBISD portion of the bill and not Harris County or the City of Houston portions, unless they vote to disaster reappraise as well.
“Over and over, our board members stated their beliefs that this was the right thing to do for our community,” stated SBISD Board of Trustees President Karen Peck. “It reflects our SBISD core values of a Moral Compass, Collaborative Spirit and Collective Greatness,” she added in an October 12th SBISD press release.
Section 23.02 of the Texas Tax Code allows for a taxing unit located party or entirely in a declared disaster area to authorize reappraisal of damaged property following the disaster. Estimates from Spring Branch ISD are that this action will offer $7 million in savings to impacted taxpayers , and cost roughly $1 million to complete the reappraisal. Under Section 23.02, if multiple taxing units ask for disaster reappraisal in the same area they will share those costs. In an October 5th article in the Houston Chronicle, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett called disaster reappraisal “not a very workable solution”, citing the cost and the loss of revenue to the County.
“This is a workable solution now that another taxing entity expects to spend public monies here too,” continued Senator Bettencourt (R-Houston). “Harris County, for example, has received hundreds of millions of dollars more per year due to rising property tax appraisals. They can easily afford to split a few million in expense. Taxing entities should worry less about their own revenue streams and more about getting off the backs of homeowners who are trying to rebuild. It is time to put the taxpayers first!”
Hurricane Harvey is estimated to be the most expensive storm in the history of the United States having caused up to an estimated $200 billion in damage, across large parts of Southeast Texas. It is estimated that the storm dropped over fifty inches of rain on parts of Harris County, and a record 64.38 inches in Nederland.
“The bottom line in all of this is that we should not be kicking taxpayers while they are down.” concluded Senator Bettencourt. “It is a moral responsibility to give flooded out taxpayers a break!”
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Yet another taxing entity does the right thing.
One thing to point out about Judge Emmett’s reluctance to propose reappraisals because of the expense. The more taxing entities that do the right thing, the cheaper it is per taxing entity because the cost is split. When I talked to HCAD’s Jason Cunningham prior to proposing reappraisals for the City of Shoreacres, he estimated the cost to be between $20 and $30 per home. At that price it was a no-brainer to me, even if no other taxing entity joined us. If all taxing entities on my tax bill did the right thing, the cost to each taxing entity would be $5 per home.
Regardless of the cost, it is the morally right thing to do. I’m glad that the board members of the Spring ISD recognized that. I hope that the rest of our elected officials will go ahead and do the right thing. While it might seem that I’m picking on Judge Emmett here, I’m not. As the leader of Republicans in Harris County, he could single-handedly turn this ship around and most all taxing entities would follow. As a fellow Republican, I’m simply asking him to do the right thing.
Correction: The first title of this post was “Reappraisals – Spring ISD does the right thing”. It should have been “Reappraisals – Spring Branch ISD does the right thing”. I apologize for the error. And much thanks to the friendly reader that pointed that out.
SBISD did the right thing. In practice, I would prefer they just give flooded homes a reduction of x{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} because the appraisals will cost money. However, the board is showing the right leadership.
Also, there is a big effort underway in Spring Branch to get people to vote against the infrastructure bonds. Lots of people are angry that everything but flooding is getting $500 million in bonds. Why not flooding, Also? I have to say I agree and people should vote no to all these bonds.
The $495 million bond proposal doesn’t include streets and drainage work because those are funded by the “rain tax” on a pay as you go schedule. The bond proposal includes money for police and fire vehicles, which are badly needed, parks, libraries, City building renovations, etc. All that work is necessary, unless you think that it’s reasonable for police and fire staff to drive unreliable 20 year old vehicles, office workers to work in buildings that badly need repairs and renovations, and to ignore library repairs and renovation. The normal operation of the City doesn’t go away because of natural disasters.
Keep in mind that there is little the City can do on flooding, since the main issues, like bayous and reservoirs, are controlled by the Corps of Engineers and the Harris County Flood Control District, and some of the causes are outside the City in areas where the City can’t spend any funds. The City can replace and improve the storm sewer system, which is part and parcel of the projects funded by the “rain tax” (the storm sewers on Shepherd from Westheimer to Allen Parkway were replaced with huge 8 or 10 foot square concrete pipes as part of that RebuildHouston project, for example), but the City can’t do work on the Bayous to improve the flow or capacity there. The City could change the rules on developments to eliminate the grandfathering that exempts redevelopment projects from current water retention standards – that would help slow down the flow of runoff into the drainage system, and try to influence development in the ETJ to mitigate runoff.
IS SBISD going to make up the loss in revenue from reappraisal by increasing the tax rate? If not, what student services will be affected?
Ross,
Your parents must be so proud that they raised a political hack.
ReBuild was supposed to pay for drainage but didn’t. There are lots of things the city can do for drainage but it means taking away money for boondoggles like the post oak busses that no one will ride.
Bus trip to Neiman Marcus anyone?
Cop cars and libraries need help but they can wait another year.
Flooding REALLY needs to be taken care of now and it makes sense to vote down luxuries while our homeowners are getting no relief. Sad that upgrading 10 (not 20) year old cars is a luxury, but against homes flooding every year everything in thst 50o million dollar bond is a luxury items.
Vote down the bonds, Houston.
Let’s roll up our sleeves to tackle flooding.
Or else, let the flood victims eat cake, right Ross?
SBISD will be just fine. The board will take care of it. They handle money just fine. Don’t worry your head over it. Work on flooding since you clearly have a city of Houston agenda of some kind.
Time for Harris County and the H-Town to get on board.
I’ve asked the City of Bellaire City Council twice in the last month to do ” the right thing” asking for Mass Re Appraisal for tax year 2017.
Almost 1/3 of Bellaire’s 6500 homes flooded.
So far, nada.
Why should Harvey flood victims be “preyed upon'” by local taxing authorities?
Vote NO to all of Sly’s bond proposals especially the Pension Bonds.
Should Bellaire Mayor-Council NOT give relief to Harvey victims, NONE should be Re-elected!!
You can also add La Porte ISD as another entity authorizing disaster reappraisals.
Excellent!
Thanks for the article, I have contacted the City of Baytown, Harris County Judge Emmett and Goose Creek ISD to ask if they will do reappraisals. Baytown and the County are ignoring the question, but GCCISD President Al Richard replied to my email with indignation and questioning if I really did call the school board or not and wanting to “verify” with his staff that I had called in. He didn’t answer if they will be doing reappraisals but by his belligerent tone of his emails I would say it’s a safe bet they want to keep all the money.