Pearland ISD approves protest of property value study

A Pearland ISD property value study was found to fall outside the margin of error, causing the district to protest the study’s results to protect itself from losing some state funding.

The board unanimously agreed March 7 to designate the Brazoria County Appraisal District’s chief appraiser as its agent in filing a protest against the state comptroller’s 2022 property value study.

Property values in the school district must be assessed as close to market value as possible, or the state could assign its own values for determining funding rather than using local values. In Texas, a school district tends to receive most of its funding from the state and the remainder from local property taxes.

The values were assessed at 90.03% of market values, which is outside the margin of error of 5%, triggering the protest. Pearland ISD Chief Financial Officer Jorgannie Carter said if the assessment determined properties were off by more than 10%, then the district would have fallen outside of a “grace period” and lost about $11.2 million in state funding.

“We're safe this year,” Carter said. “We're still able to use our local values for the state to determine the share of [funding].”

Carter said the Brazoria County chief appraiser needs to ensure the property values are appraised at market value; otherwise, next year the district may fall out of the grace period and lose funding as a result.

Carter said other districts across the state faced incorrect or state-assigned property value assessments, including Brazosport ISD and Angleton ISD in Brazoria County. She said neither district fell into the “grace period” that protected them from potentially losing funding.