CCAD appealing unfavorable tax study

RUSK -- Annual property study results have been released by the Texas State Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office, and it doesn’t bode well for some Cherokee County taxpayers.

According to information released from the State Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division, Jacksonville and Rusk school districts could be penalized severely in state funding if a pending appeal by the Cherokee County Appraisal District (CCAD) is not successful.

The new study indicates the CCAD is allegedly below market value on both residential and commercial real estate valuations in the two school districts.

The effect of an unsuccessful appeal could penalize JISD $1 million and RISD $700,000 in overall state funding.

Based on market information available to CCAD Chief Appraiser Lee Flowers, he disagrees with the state’s overall assessment of commercial values.

“They indicate we are 15 percent low on commercial real estate in JISD and 35 percent low on RISD commercial real estate,” Flowers said. “These types of property in our county are difficult for anyone to appraise.

“However, if the state has reliable data not previously available to us, we will analyze their information and move forward accordingly.”

Value study problems are not the only challenge facing the local jurisdictions however.

It is apparent that these school districts might have received a grace period if not for a failure in the CCAD’s most recent state procedures audit.

This grace period would have held the school districts harmless in state funding for one year.

State requirements establish that in order for a school district to qualify for the grace period, the local appraisal district must score a “pass” on four key questions.

In 2018, CCAD missed one of those key questions. That question contained 15 subparts. Of those subparts, CCAD passed all but one. In order for that key question to be considered a “pass” all 15 subparts must have been a “yes.”

Overall, the appraisal district successfully passed 77 out of 80 questions in the audit.

“The subpart preventing grace relates to the valuation of low-income housing,” Flowers said. “I made a decision to focus our resources on other critical matters relating to 2019 values and take up the question of low- income housing data in 2020.”

He also noted that the low-income housing question was not in previous audits. He and his staff had from December to April to correct the deficiency.

“We would have appreciated either an earlier notice of the question’s inclusion or more time to assemble the data in order to properly implement the correction,” Flowers said.

Currently, Flowers is appealing the value study.

If he is successful, the potential for loss to the schools could either be eliminated or substantially reduced.

He is hoping for a successful appeal.