Fort Bend County property owners may not see their tax bills until mid-October or possibly much later because of a backlog of thousands of people whose property tax protests still haven’t been heard.
Fort Bend County Commissioners Court usually receives a certified property roll from the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District, including the total taxable value of all land in the county, by August. But county officials say they’ve received notice from the CAD that it will be unable to provide a certified land value before Sept. 1.
County officials familiar with the matter expressed sketicism the CAD will provide a certified land value even by then.
“What’s driving the delay is just thousands of home owners” appealing land appraisals done by CAD appraisers, said County Judge Bob Hebert. “I’m just a little distressed.” CAD officials “should’ve staffed accordingly to handle the volume, but they didn’t.”
CAD Chief Appraiser Glen Whitehead didn’t immediately return a call for comment. But County Budget Director Pamela Gubbels said an email she just received from the CAD shows that property still “under Appraisal Review Board review for the Fort Bend County general fund” is potentially valued at $9.7 billion. Gubbels said land for which final appraisals have been approved total $31.3 billion.
Commissioners Court members are charged with setting the county’s property tax rate, but by law can’t do so until they are presented with a certified number representing the value of all taxable property in Fort Bend County, Hebert said. And after a certified number is presented, state law then requires a certain number of public hearings a certain number of days apart, to give citizens the right to comment on a proposed rate.
Given those requirements, “we’re looking at mid-October” at best, Gubbels said, before an effective tax rate can be set, and the county tax office can begin preparing a mailing property tax bills.
In a normal year, Texas counties are required to send out tax statements by October first, Hebert said. That theoretically allows residents time to see how much they owe and set aside the money by Jan. 31, when property tax bills are due.
But 2009 has shaped up to be an extraordinary year.
In the midst of a severe national real estate crunch, a preliminary valuation of all Fort Bend County property, released in May by the CAD, totaled $42.2 billion – up 10.8% from last year.
In Simonton and Fulshear, some property appraisals jumped by more than 1,000%, angering residents and sparking formation of a protest group.
Now the volume of those protests is being cited as the main reason tax rates can’t be set and tax bills mailed on time.
In the end, Hebert said, that delay may hurt many of the property owners who protested their appraisal values in the first place. Even if their property tax bills arrive as late as Dec. 31, those bills still are due Jan. 31.
“Here we are in a recession…there are people that are tight for cash, and we’re not going to get our bills out on Oct. 1,” Hebert said. “We might not get them out until Nov. 1, and worst case it could be December.”
“There’s a saying in the Navy that you can only go as fast as the slowest ship in the convoy,” Hebert added. “Right now the slowest ship in our little tax convoy is the CAD.”
“Trying to get the budget together this year has been interesting, to say the least,” Gubbels said.
Well read this on FBISD Bond Review
http://www.brb.state.tx.us/lgs/summaries/08/isd08/isd2008sum.aspx
I just found a list of old Bob Hebert supporters and contributors stored on a google search. Quite a list of local who’s who in land development, engineering and politics. I see Duggan on the list too…..my, my the plot thickins. Is anyone running against this guy this in 2010????
Hmmm, I wonder why there are so many protests…hmmmm
Personally speaking as someone who dabbles in real estate for myself and family, to be able to classify land as Ag is a huge tax saving advantage; however, land, in my humble opinion is far more valuable than a lot in a subdivision even a planned, beautiful one. Nowadays, even, in gorgeous. planned communities, I shudder at how close the houses are to one another. Although the tax records may reflect that small little “no named” out of the way communities, show properties as being not as valuable as other more developed “name brand” communities; those who have the wisdom to look past the hype to realize more land with, even, a humble home upon it has its valued advantageous—the number one value is God is not making anymore land; you can build more houses and make them as gorgeous as possible, but you cannot generate more land. So to be in a humble home with more land surrounding the home is priceless; far more valuable; and cost effective in my little “no named” opinion. And then to be able to put livestock upon the excess land surrounding the home is a smart move toward tax savings.
Even though, the homes in Sweetwater are out of my price range of affordability; yet, if I could afford one, I would upgrade the effect by sitting it upon acreage for producing a drop dead gorgeous effect.
In the final analysis though, to each his/her own—some people like being in communities with amenities even if the houses are in close proximity to each other. But my point is to compare small, no named communities with no amenities other than the effect of sitting upon more of God’s land with big brand named communities on small lots is not exactly comparable. In essence the hyped, big named planned communities are going to be stuck with the higher tax bill following the pattern of the hype; yet, small, no named communities sitting on more of God’s land that he ain’t making anymore of has outwitted the hype of the big names and pay less taxes. The underlying reason for there being more comparable statistics on home sells than land sells is because there is more turn over with houses but not so with land. There are plenty of houses to buy and sell—but land, no. Why? Because God is not making anymore. Land is more valuable even in a “no named” community.
Having said the aforementioned, I agree the taxing entity is out of control but it is due to hype and upside-down logic like so many other things in our society.
The problem is not just “appraised value.” That was just the first hit. The FBISD Board is planning a TAX RATE HIKE of 3.5 presumably to make up for this year’s(09)property deflation. It is criminal, and this type of thing spawned the French Revolution, but then, the French did not have sofas, plasma TVs, and potato chips. The Tax Rate Hike meeting is this Monday 8-10-09, 5:00pm, at 16431 Lexington Blvd. Sugar Land 77479
The chairman of the Fort Bend CAD Board of Directors is Lee M. Duggan III. According to CAD data his primary residence is off Oilfield Rd. in Sugar Land. The 4 acres surrounding his home are taxed at the Ag use value of $9820 and the 1 acre parcel that his home sits on is valued at $23,450. The improvements are listed at $348,520.
I happen to live in a neighborhood less than 5 miles from Mr. Duggan and my 0.19 acre residential lot is presently valued at $50,000, which is almost 1-1/2 the value Mr. Duggan’s 5 acre parcel is taxed at. It would take around 26 lots from my neighborhood to equal the size of Mr. Duggan’s 5 acre spread and taken together those 26 lots would be valued at over $1.3 M. I would bet that there hasn’t been a single 1 acre parcel of land sold in that part of Sugar Land for anywhere near $25,000 in quite some time.
Is this a legitimate valuation? If you must use comps to determine value it may be, because in the land of master planned communities there likely aren’t many comparable sales that could be compared against Mr. Duggan’s property. For the rest of us living in more common cookie cutter neighborhoods, there are plenty of comparables.
Do the valuations represent actual values? In the case of Mr. Duggan’s property, I suspect that the tax value of his property is less than half of the actually value if it were sold on the market today. In fact, I would expect the land alone to sell for more than his total current valuation. In my neighborhood, I think most folks would be happy to get the tax value of their homes when it comes time to sell, I know I would!
Innocent Protesters are effected by FBCAD injustice actions. Its time for elected officials( justice) to step forward an hold FBCAD accountable and to pay the price for illegal appraised values affecting taxpayer thats affecting county budget as proven here. Judge Hebert has fail to hold FBCAD accountable for illegal appraise values and overridig state law. Thats withholding justice.
It time for Whitehead to resign or pursue other interests. The CAD needs someone who is independent of the taxing authorities and can assess property correctly – not what the taxing authorities want to see.
When the economy is in a contraction (some say collapse), then it is acting “stupidly,” and grossly irresponsible for local government to try an squeeze the public any more than the “bailout” high gas prices, loss of property value, and loss of work already have. Should we “eat cake” Mr, Hebert? There are consequences…
“In the midst of a severe national real estate crunch, a preliminary valuation of all Fort Bend County property, released in May by the CAD, totaled $42.2 billion – up 10.8% from last year.”
Amazing that the judge would be complaining about such a large number of appeals given the observation that the system appears broken and since the elected officials, like him, help select this CAD board, why would he continue to point the finger at them and away from the broken process. Reduce the county budget and most of the participating entities budgets during times of recession.
That will truly help the homeowners and taxpayers just trying to get by this year.
FBCAD is with holding state and court judgement law, thats effecting county tax rate budget time! An continue to tell plaintiffs to hire an attorney,for justice.