The fourth Montgomery County tax workshop, focusing on the county’s appraisal process, took place in Magnolia on April 21.
The county’s deadline for property owners to file protests is May 15, or 30 days after the notice of appraisal is received, whichever comes later, according to the Montgomery County Appraisal District’s website.
Montgomery County’s chief appraiser, Tony Belinoski, told Community Impact Newspaper in an interview that the workshops were rolled out for 2022 due to “unprecedented” valuations. Belinoski also said valuations were the “opposite of expected” during the previous two years.
“Everyone expected the market to take a hit during COVID-19,” Belinoski said. “Instead, the exact opposite happened.”
Montgomery County’s chief tax assessor-collector, Tammy McRae, spoke at the April 21 workshop to inform residents of the taxing entities going into their property tax bills. Proposed tax rates must be noticed by Sept. 1 in Montgomery County, and McRae encouraged residents to go to taxing jurisdictions to express concerns with tax rates
“When values go high, tax rates need to go down,” McRae said. “You need to pay attention to that, because this year more than ever, most tax rates need to be coming down.”
Both Belinoski and McRae also spoke about two property tax propositions on the ballot in the May 7 local election. Senate Joint Resolution 2—from the 2021 3rd special session of the Texas Legislature—would reduce the property tax limit for ISD maintenance imposed on homesteads for elderly and disabled residents, in line with compressed tax rates enacted by House Bill 3 in 2019.
Resident questions for appraisal staff concerned differences in property valuations despite differences in property size. Belinoski emphasized that market values can also play a role in appraised values.
Rep. Cecil Bell Jr., R-Magnolia, also attended the workshop. Bell highlighted some of the bills on his legislative agenda relating to both property taxes—including a bill to buy down property tax rates using surplus revenue—and the appraisal process, where licensed appraisers employed by property owners could be given equal weight to central appraisers.
“My hope is that between the protests and the tax rates...we can bring that into a controlled manner and not force us into a legislative rewrite,” Bell said. “A rewrite might sound really good, but we would only learn what unintended consequences we would create when we start using it...Unintended consequences continue to be the ugly side of comprehensive rewrites.”
If you are a resident of either Harris or Montgomery County, and are interested in speaking with Community Impact Newspaper about your 2022 appraisal or have any questions we can look into, please fill out the form here!
