Appraisal Task Force Report Out Today

Capitol Letters | Mike Drago:

“The final report from the Tom Pauken-led task force on property appraisals releases its report this afternoon in a presser with Gov. Perry. Quorum Report's Harvey Kronberg obtained an early copy, which reveals few, if any, surprises.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

I've commented on this task force many times before. My bottom line has always been that Gov. Perry and Tom Pauken have used so-called appraisal reform as a cover to target their real aim: capping the growth of local government spending. That may or may not be a worthwhile cause, but it's disingenuous to use the appraisal process as a cover to attack local government.

Let's look at the task force's final recommendations to see how many deal with the appraisal process. (The quotes are from Mike Drago's story, not the task force's report itself.)

• "Require voters' approval for government spending to increase more than 5 percent year-over-year."

  EC: This has nothing to do with the appraisal process. Let the people elected by local voters do their jobs. If you don't like the budgets they draw up, vote them out and replace them. Don't trash representative government itself and institute government by referendum. It all makes one wonder: why wasn't the task force named something like "Task Force on New Restrictions on Local Government"?

• "Reform the property appraisal process by establishing minimum qualifications for appraisal board members and taking other steps to protect property owners."

  EC: There's nothing wrong with setting qualifications for these appointed positions, as long as the qualifications are professional, not political.

• "Require taxing entities to give taxpayers more specific and explicit information in their bills."

  EC: Truth-in-taxation is OK, even if it is worded in a way designed to stimulate taxpayer revolts. So be it.

• "Require the comptroller to give taxpayers better information about their rights -- notably their rights to appeal -- under the tax code."

  EC: Truth-in-taxation is OK, even if it is worded in a way designed to stimulate taxpayer revolts. So be it.

• "Change the makeup of the appraisal boards to include taxpayer representatives."

  EC: Of the current five member board, all now appointed by local taxing entities, two members would be replaced by appointments by a District Judge and one member would be replaced by the elected county tax assessor-collector. As this provides a check against potential abuse of the appraisal process by the local taxing entities, it is a reasonable recommendation.

• "Prohibit legislative actions that are in effect unfunded mandates — services that the state requires local governments to perform but does not fund. One example: Requiring school districts to lower the student-teacher ratio without providing additional money to hire more teachers."

  EC: This is a reasonable idea, but this has nothing to do with the appraisal process either.

• "Require the disclosure of property sales prices. A lack of disclosure is thought to have depressed the taxable value of property, especially on high-end residential and commercial property."

  EC: Finally, something that sounds like it will actually improve the accuracy of property appraisals in Texas. But it turns out that this recommendation technically doesn't require disclosure of the sales price at all, only the buyer's estimated value, with supporting documentation. A "liar's affidavit" in other words. Sigh.

• Give the option to city and county governments to enact a 1/2 cent sales tax dedicated to property tax reduction.

  EC: Again, this has nothing to do with the property appraisal process. I would vote against a sales tax increase because sales taxes are inherently regressive. Shifting the burden of funding local government from property taxes to sales taxes results in shifting the burden from the wealthy to the working class and poor. Nevertheless, if local voters want to choose such a scheme, the choice should be available to them. So, I accept allowing a vote on higher sales taxes, but I hope voters reject the idea.