City aims to challenge appraisals
Special meeting tonight to focus on single family property values
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

City council members are expected to look for ways to challenge the way the Nueces County Tax Appraisal District has been treating properties in Port Aransas tomorrow, Thursday, June 15, when the council meets in a special session.

"We simply think there are too many fluctuations in appraisals," Mayor Claude Brown said of his decision to call the special meeting.

Brown said property appraisals in Port Aransas rose by about $43 million this year.

"There are properties on 12th Street that are appraised at $6 a square foot, and right in the middle of them is one that's appraised at $21 a square foot," he said.

The council has been irate at the appraisal district since reports of property value increases began coming in. Councilman Charles Bujan said one of his own properties increased in appraised value by 212 percent.

Last week, the council made a statement by calling a special meeting in the hearing room of the appraisal district board as that board was considering its budget. Five council members spoke to the board, as did Betsy Churgai, a Planning and Zoning Commission member who said she was speaking as a private citizen.

Brown told the board at the time that appraisals were "nothing more than organized crime."

While state law doesn't allow a taxing unit, such as city or school board or water control district, to challenge appraisals of individual properties, it does permit a challenge of appraisals on any category of property. Single family residential properties are one such category, as are multi-family residential units, industrial properties, farms and others.

Challenges to individual property appraisals must be made by the property owner or a representative of the owner, the law says. If the council agrees to challenge the district - and with five of the seven members speaking to the appraisal board, there's little doubt of that - the challenge would go to the state Ap- praisal Review Board, an arm of the State Comptroller's office.

Faced with property value increases last year that were similar to this year's, the council led what was called a statewide property tax revolt. That included proposed legislation in Austin that would have let cities raise the exemption on homesteads from the current maximum of 20 percent to as much as 30 percent. The legislation failed, however.

Along with the tax appraisal district challenge, the council will also discuss beach maintenance, a subject it visited on May 30.

It will also take up the question of courtesy workers at Mustang Beach Airport. Airport backers have said the facility badly needs someone on hand to greet visitors who fly in to the island, providing them with directions and advice on how to find things in the city.

No money has been set aside for airport workers in the city budget, although last summer, an anonymous donor contributed $5,000 to pay two part-time workers at the airport.