City to help residents appeal next year's appraisals
Efforts to lower property values fall on deaf ears
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Port Aransas may have lost the battle, but it hasn't necessarily lost the war.

That's the position of city officials in the wake of a rebuff on July 16, when the Nueces County Appraisal Review Board (ARB) refused to change single-family property appraisals in the city.

"We think we got their attention," said City Manager Michael Kovacs. "I don't think they really expected us to file the (classification) challenge."

The board voted 7-0 to sustain existing property valuations in the city. On Thursday, July 19, the city council declined to take that battle to the next step, which would have involved filing a lawsuit against the appraisal district in district court in Corpus Christi.

"Both Michael (Kovacs) and I have talked with Jim Popp (the lawyer hired to represent the city before the ARB)," City Attorney Mike Morris told the council.

"He has advised us that the chances of success on appeal are virtually nil. The chances are slim, the cost would be high."

But that doesn't mean the city has given up for the future.

Kovacs said the filing of the classification challenge had received news coverage across the state. Such a challenge, which asks that the appraisal district review all single-family property appraisals in the city, is so rare that many tax officials said they'd never heard of one being filed.

The city has also been in touch with its legislative delegation, state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi. Both had said they would introduce bills in the next legislative session to allow cities to raise the permissible homestead exemption from the current 20 percent. A bill last session to allow raising homestead exemptions to 30 percent failed, but was filed late in the session.

Kovacs also is hoping to generate some buzz among cities around the state who may also be interested in filing challenges. However, Bennett Sandlin, general counsel for the Texas Municipal League in Austin, said he hasn't heard anything from any of the league's member cities.

Sandlin also said it may be so soon after the ARB ruling in Corpus Christi that cities haven't had a chance to get acquainted with the process.

Meanwhile, the city isn't sitting still. Kovacs said next year, informal courses will be offered to property owners providing information about how to file tax protests and the steps that are available to citizens. While protests filed by individuals don't follow the same path as the challenge filed by the city, the results can be similar.

City council members, in discussing the classification challenge, have consistently reminded residents to file their own protests and not to rely totally on the city's challenge.

Kovacs said he's also talking with Nueces County officials about the method appraisers use to arrive at property valuations.

"One of the problems we had with the system was the methodology they use," Kovacs said. "We have examples where a homeowner in a subdivision might have a home valued at 30 cents a (square) foot and a neighbor's valuation might be 12 cents a (square) foot."

He said the city also wants to ensure that newer subdivisions don't bear a tax burden out of proportion to their value.

While the district might have come close on subdivisions with similar homes, "parts of the old town (section of Port Aransas) are pretty hit-andmiss," he said.

Kovacs wouldn't say he was satisfied with the progress made by the city in protesting property valuations, nor would he rule out the possibility of the city's filing another challenge next year.

He did say the district has been willing to listen during their discussions, but he couldn't say whether the discussions would result in changes in the district's appraisal procedures.

"They have the option to prevent another challenge from being filed," he said.