Published Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:07 AM
Brazos values to be released
By MATTHEW WATKINS
The Brazos County Appraisal District is close to completing its final property value rolls, and officials said they expected the final values to be about 3 percent lower than the initial numbers.
"I think it has been a fairly normal year as far as our office goes," said Mark Price, chief appraiser for the office. He said that a 3 percent drop was normal after residents have had the opportunity to protest their appraisals.
The total initial appraised value of property in Brazos County is more than $11 billion. The final numbers will be made official July 12. Property owners who wish to protest their appraisals have two more days to do so -- Tuesday and Thursday.
The final numbers will then be sent to the local school districts and county and municipal governments, which will approve tax rates and budgets.
Appraisers reach their initial assessment by surveying sales prices for property in certain neighborhoods and areas of town in the previous year. They then estimate the cost per square foot of property in the area and apply it to individual properties.
Those who wish to challenge their values then come in to the district office and meet with an appraiser. They can show the appraiser pictures or other evidence that they believe indicates that their value is lower -- or, occasionally, higher -- and the appraiser shows how he reached a conclusion.
If the two sides don't come to an agreement, the case goes before the Appraisal District's Board of directors.
"Both the taxpayer and the appraiser present their information and show how they arrived at their value, and then [the board] will make a determination," Price said. "You are sworn in under oath, but it is a pretty informal process."
Most challengers argue for lower appraisals in an effort to lower their tax bills, but a few argue that their properties have more value, appraisers said.
Price said he was unable to estimate what proportion of protests are successful.
Most local jurisdictions already have indicated that cutbacks will be necessary in the coming budget year because of the tough economic climate.
The Bryan and College Station municipal governments are discussing delaying projects, leaving jobs open or possibly making job cuts.
The Bryan school district has discussed cutting back on teacher raises and programs for at-risk students. College Station school officials, however, have said they were pleased with their tax-base projections.
Comments
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6 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
Rocky Patel Brazos County On:
Sunday, July 05, 2009 9:42 PM
Comment Title: Product makers The Next Generation
With the BISD school boards Packed with old BISD products that never lived anyplace Bryan, this is what you get..
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Posted by:
On:
Sunday, July 05, 2009 3:44 PM
Comment Title: Failure is rewarded
Unfortunately I'll have to agree that voters in BISD have fallen under the same mistaken notion as most liberals - that is, just throwing money at a problem will improve or solve it. It doesn't!!! Giving more money to BISD would be a total waste. Except for the very rare exceptional school, public education generally is one of the worst investments around. I've never seen another institution produce so less with so much money. Consider property taxes that fund our pathetic schools. If you work hard and improve your property, its value will go up, and you "rewarded" by paying more property taxes. But that is the nature of our society now, success is punished and failure is rewarded.
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Posted by:
On:
Sunday, July 05, 2009 3:17 PM
Comment Title:
The people of Bryan are idiots for putting up with this.
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Posted by:
On:
Saturday, July 04, 2009 6:49 PM
Comment Title: No more money to ISDs
CSISD and BISD are literally receiving millions this month from Obama's trillion dollar "stimulus" bill (which, by the way, was supposed to stem unemployment at 8%; its now 9.5% and climbing). They don't deserve another dime from us. It's unbelievable that BISD even had a notion to raise our taxes instead of cutting their own budget. They need to do more with less just like the rest of us!
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Posted by:
On:
Saturday, July 04, 2009 2:52 PM
Comment Title:
All government entities want to raise your taxes. The problem is that the number of government workers living on the various government teats is increasing while the number of real income workers is decreasing. The day of reckoning is coming.
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Posted by:
On:
Saturday, July 04, 2009 11:24 AM
Comment Title: BISD wants to raise your taxes!
The story above would have you believe that BISD is only considering cutting back. Wrong!!!! Their first inclination and response to lower revenues was to raise your taxes even higher. Never forget that. From the article, http://www.theeagle.com/schools/Bryan-schools-weigh-tax-hike- , we read that " The only way to address the shortfall, officials said, is to ask voters for more property tax revenue. . . District Chief Financial Officer Amy Drozd, who presented the budget to trustees Wednesday, asked the school board to decide how much of an increase members wanted to seek from voters."
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