The Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform and Relief’s hearing occurred Wednesday at Houston Community College.[/caption]
Property tax reform and relief has become a priority for both Texas senators and Houston-area residents as Texas homeowners continue to pay rapidly increasing property taxes.
Houston-area property owners gathered Thursday morning at a public hearing with Texas senators and began the process of alleviating taxpayers' relationship with appraisal review boards and working toward property tax relief solutions.
“Property taxes have been rising two and a half times faster than Texans' median household income,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt. R-Houston. “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked us to find a solution to the problem, or otherwise we’re going to be taxing Texans out of their home.”
Bettencourt said when compared to Dallas, which has seen property tax increase by 22.4 percent in the past two years, Houston and Harris County have seen a 43 percent increase in the past three years.
"One of the solutions is simple, it’s called rollback,” Bettencourt said. "As the values go up, tax rates are forced to go down. In addition, we’re going to be looking at appraisal reform and relief from the standpoint of appraisal district practices. These solutions are designed to stop runaway tax bills from going though taxpayer's roofs and also pushing businesses out of high tax zones.”
Aside from acting on rollback solutions and appraisal reform, changing the property tax calendar and timeline is also a priority for county appraisal districts.
Roland Altinger, chief appraiser of the Harris County Appraiser District, addressed the Senate committee at Wednesday’s public hearing and said protest deadlines for appraisals were confusing to property owners.
I want to review some suggestions on how to make the system more fair and equitable of for all stockholders,” Altinger said. “I’ve studied the tax system in all states and I believe Texas has one of the best ones. The protest deadline is very convoluted and confusing, as it stands for property owners with residential homesteads who receive notices early and who have to file by May 1. We don’t want property owners to miss that deadline, so we want to move the deadline to May 15.”
Glenn Whitehead, chief appraiser for the Fort Bend Appraisal District, agreed with Altinger and said the property tax calendar should be revised.
“To address the property tax calendar would be a positive thing, as we had deadlines for different protest periods,” Whitehead said. “ Also, the biggest issues I have is dealing with business personal property. We’re having to give numbers we don’t even have renditions of to go through and figure out what to tell jurisdictions what their roles will be. So those roles are very subjective to what we’re really giving them.”
“The number of citizens that came to share stories of frustration and mistreatment through the appraisal process is appreciated, and I find it appalling.”
—State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst
Another big issue that was brought up by Whitehead and other Houston residents was the unqualified stature of Appraisal Review Board members.
“The ARB is a separate body and the members are judge and jury of hearing subcommittee,” Whitehead said. “Currently, our comptroller is responsible for training members. Training prior to 2015 was a one-day session, but 2016 dropped to half-day training systems. Training sessions should include one day of working with people, two days with learning procedure, one or two days with property tax law and one day with ethics. You can’t expect someone to get half of a days training and know what to do.”
The Millis Group CEO Mark Milliss said his company protests about 40 to 50 properties per year and in many cases they go straight to the ARB rather than the appraisal district.
“Most of our protests are based on unequal taxation and I have since learned to read the law to them because they are so uneducated to unequal taxation.” Millis said. “I will tell them that upon use of evidence the taxpayer will win. There’s no doubt the ARB needs more training.”
The topic of property tax reform and relief is expected to remain a hot topic in Houston as senators work toward new legislation after hearing concerns from residents.
“The number of citizens that came to share stories of frustration and mistreatment through the appraisal process is appreciated, and I find it appalling,” state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst said. “We have a great deal of work to do in restoring public confidence. This process must change.”
State Sen. Joan Huffman agreed and said she will continue to listen to constituents and work to reform the property tax system.
“I’m looking at these charts and information and these issues are a great concern to me and my constituents and I look forward at looking toward solutions,” Huffman said.
The Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform and Relief’s hearing occurred Wednesday at Houston Community College.[/caption]
Property tax reform and relief has become a priority for both Texas senators and Houston-area residents as Texas homeowners continue to pay rapidly increasing property taxes.
Houston-area property owners gathered Thursday morning at a public hearing with Texas senators and began the process of alleviating taxpayers' relationship with appraisal review boards and working toward property tax relief solutions.
“Property taxes have been rising two and a half times faster than Texans' median household income,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt. R-Houston. “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked us to find a solution to the problem, or otherwise we’re going to be taxing Texans out of their home.”
Bettencourt said when compared to Dallas, which has seen property tax increase by 22.4 percent in the past two years, Houston and Harris County have seen a 43 percent increase in the past three years.
"One of the solutions is simple, it’s called rollback,” Bettencourt said. "As the values go up, tax rates are forced to go down. In addition, we’re going to be looking at appraisal reform and relief from the standpoint of appraisal district practices. These solutions are designed to stop runaway tax bills from going though taxpayer's roofs and also pushing businesses out of high tax zones.”
Aside from acting on rollback solutions and appraisal reform, changing the property tax calendar and timeline is also a priority for county appraisal districts.
Roland Altinger, chief appraiser of the Harris County Appraiser District, addressed the Senate committee at Wednesday’s public hearing and said protest deadlines for appraisals were confusing to property owners.
I want to review some suggestions on how to make the system more fair and equitable of for all stockholders,” Altinger said. “I’ve studied the tax system in all states and I believe Texas has one of the best ones. The protest deadline is very convoluted and confusing, as it stands for property owners with residential homesteads who receive notices early and who have to file by May 1. We don’t want property owners to miss that deadline, so we want to move the deadline to May 15.”
Glenn Whitehead, chief appraiser for the Fort Bend Appraisal District, agreed with Altinger and said the property tax calendar should be revised.
“To address the property tax calendar would be a positive thing, as we had deadlines for different protest periods,” Whitehead said. “ Also, the biggest issues I have is dealing with business personal property. We’re having to give numbers we don’t even have renditions of to go through and figure out what to tell jurisdictions what their roles will be. So those roles are very subjective to what we’re really giving them.”
