Agenda 09-04-2025; 8-a - Minutes for the July 8, 2025 Business Meeting

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23 1 Chair Bedford said looking at the outlier first is an efficient way to begin figuring out why 2 data is skewed. She gave an example of two properties in a neighborhood, one that is a 3 minority owned regular house and one that is a student rental. She said the regular house is 4 valued higher than the rental. She said she was concerned the study wouldn't capture that 5 information. 6 Nancy Freeman said she had seen a similar situation. She said the rental property was 7 under renovation as of January 1, 2025 and only at 10-20% completion. She said when 8 finished, that property will have a value of over $1 million. She said by law, they can only value 9 property at whatever completion point it is at. She said without seeing properties she can't say, 10 she encouraged people to appeal their values if they have concerns. 11 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked what the process is for reviewing values after the 12 initial analysis. 13 Nancy Freeman said issues should be caught by the appraiser reviewing that 14 neighborhood after running the sales analysis. 15 Chair Bedford asked how values are affected by major renovations. 16 Nancy Freeman said that new construction is reviewed annually. She said if renovations 17 are done in 2027, they would receive the permit information, but they would use values based 18 on 2025. 19 Commissioner McKee requested a point of privilege to provide a comment before the 20 public made remarks. 21 Chair Bedford granted the privilege. 22 Commissioner McKee said the county is a vassal of the state. He said they cannot 23 exceed what the state allows the county to do. He said there are regulations of how to do 24 revaluations. He said they can set the tax rate, but they cannot re-evaluate properties 25 differently. He said he's spoken with legislators, and it will be difficult to allow age of resident, 26 age of property, tenure of ownership, and income of the resident to be considered. He said 27 there is a law in Texas that freezes property taxes for owners over 65. He said people are 28 caught when they are on fixed incomes and their values increase. He said people need to 29 contact their legislators. 30 Chair Bedford asked for clarification from the County Attorney on what the Board of 31 Commissioners is allowed to do for requesting that properties be reviewed by the Board of 32 Equalization and Review. 33 John Roberts said a random person cannot appeal on someone else's behalf. He said it 34 must be someone with interest in the property. 35 Chair Bedford asked what would happen if the Tax department found an error. 36 John Roberts asked Nancy Freeman to respond to the question. 37 Nancy Freeman said that's what they are doing with the study. She said if they find 38 errors they will take them to the Board of Equalization and Review. 39 John Roberts said what the Tax department does is limited by statute. 40 Commissioner Greene said that the example cited by Commissioner McKee was 41 actually something that only school districts are allowed to do in Texas. 42 Chair Bedford said the actions by the Tax department are short-term and the County 43 Manager will develop a long-term study group to see if there are other more equitable tools that 44 could be used. She said the Board may have to consider if it is more equitable for residents to 45 have a two-year revaluation process. 46 47 PUBLIC COMMENTS: 48 Beverly Walton said she lives in a neighborhood started by her parents. She expressed 49 concern that her taxes will become too high, and she will be unable to leave her child the 50 property. She said it feels like communities like hers are being forced out.