PROTEST DEADLINE JUNE 1

Personally, I think the job of chief county appraiser takes nerves of steel and the ability to not care if people hate you.

I say that half in jest, but the reactions I’ve seen from some people who received their property appraisal notices this year are anything but glad. People are mad, angry, upset. On the one hand, if they’re getting ready to sell their properties, they’re a happy camper. But if they’re sitting around, knowing their tax payments are going to go up next year because their property valuations have increased, and they’re too young to be exempt from an increase, they’re mad and frustrated over the “so-called unfairness of it all.”

In fact, one of the men who tried to help McAllen ISD get its $297 million bond election passed credits the timing of the appraisal notices’ arrival in the mail earlier this month with sinking the vote in the school district’s favor.

“I don’t think the (Hidalgo County) Appraisal District helped at all,” said Mike Blum, who helped lead efforts for bond passage on the district’s behalf.

Up until the very end of the May 9th election, Blum said his side thought they had the election won, the $297 million bond in the bag, so to speak.

It’s hard to say how much of a real effect the 158,000 appraisal notices that went out county wide May 1 had to do with the McAllen bond election. But clearly, Blum believes they mattered.

“Of the 6,000 negative voters, there may have been 4,000 that were fence sitters,” Blum said. “They got that notice and went, ‘Holy cr*p. I'm not going to do this.’ They flipped.

He said the pro-bond people were sitting around watching election returns Saturday and still thought the votes were on their side.

“We actually thought we were ahead when the polls closed. We felt pretty good and then blast, boom. By Saturday night around 7:15, we were crying in our beer. We were in shell shock. Nobody could figure out what happened.

But then the light dawned. The appraisal notices. Had to be at least part of the reason why the bond vote turned south. As they say, timing is everything.

This is one of those, had we known this, we may have done something in advance, but we didn't know that notices went out on May whatever because the June 1st deadline is your deadline for appeal,” said Blum. “They got to go out (at least May 1). That's right in the middle of the fricking early vote. The answer is, it's statutory; it's every year. They (the county’s appraisal district) didn't pick on (the pro-bond McAllen PAC). It was county wide. But unfortunately, it hit McAllen really hard because so many people, they got their notice and went, ‘Holy cr*p.’ ”

In fact, it’s not only the people in McAllen who are swearing, because based on the huge number of people showing up at the officesof the Hidalgo County Appraisal District this year, the upset is indeed county wide.

May 1, the district mailed out those 158,000 notices, and by the following week, the phones were already ringing off the hook, people showing up at the office,looking for somebody to blame. Anybody.

For his part, Chief Appraiser Rolando Garza is a lot like his predecessors, both longtime chief Daniel Boone (descended from one of the real Daniel Boone’s brothers) and his immediate predecessor Alonzo Vega. All three relatively laid back, unscathed by the upset around them whenever it occurs. Take everything in stride. That sort of demeanor.

And in a county like Hidalgo, where property values over the past three decades have either soared like an eagle or sank like a stone, the action at the Appraisal District is often hot and heavy.

This week, we spoke with current Chief Appraiser Rolando Garza to get a handle on how he perceives this year’s appraisal upset, if you will. He took over as chief appraiser in 2008. To findout about how to filea protest before the June 1 deadline, call the district at 381-8466 or 565-2461. Or visit www.hidalgoad.org.

So, is this the worst reaction you’ve seen in your years at the Appraisal District?

Garza: “No, it has not. There's been a lot of discussion about the fee increases, a lot of media attention, and I think that's good. I think people should know and be aware of it.

But (this) has not (been the worst year) where I have experienced the most amount of protests in both the times that I have been chief appraiser and even before that as a employee of the district, a regular employee.” 

What year was the worst?

Garza: “Somewhere between 2008 and 2010. You have to remember values, they were doubling. The market was tremendous. You would buy today, sell tomorrow, and make a profit. 

I remember talking to you or your predecessor, and was told that the state comes down every so many years and audits your books, so to speak, and findsout if the property valuations you’re sending out are in line with the market’s reality. And they do this with each appraisal district around the state. They want to make sure that each district is indeed doing its best to market values properly, so to speak. In fact, the point was made in previous stories, where if an appraisal district fails to do that accurately, they get so many chances, and then the state basically takes (over control of the appraisal district) and the taxpayers really suffer because they do an across-the-board sort of increase.

Garza: “That's still the case, the controller does a bi-annual review, and it's called the property value setting. Those are done every two years and basically you are right. They check every category of property to make sure that we are appraising correctly, at market value. So that they're assured that we're paying our fair share of taxes.”

Okay, so what’s the one think lacking in the public message about what you guys do, that you wish would get out more?

Garza: “Well, I think the biggest misconception is that values should decrease. When I say that, I mean, property values. People say, my home is 20 years older, I haven't done anything (to it). Just the market itself by you owning that property and being in the location that you are, sometimes that's enough to increase the value of property, and people think I have to do something to my house in order for it to increase in value.

“The example that they always use is a car. My car is 10 years old, it's not worth what I bought it for. Yeah, that's true, that's a car. On a house, it's just the opposite. You bought it 10 years ago; you bought it for $50,000, and yet homes that are the same age, they're selling for $80,000 today.”

If you average appraisal increases this year across the county, they’re what? And what distance do you use to gauge one property against the other to get a fair valuation, one to another, apples to apples?

Garza: “Within a mile is what we try to stay in. At first,when we start looking at somebody's property, we're going to look in their own subdivision, firstof all. That's what we like to do because those are the most comparable.

“And with regard to average valuation increases, I’m going to say about 8 percent.”

But when you compare values of homes, how do you actually do it. Do you have to visually look at each property in the county once every three years or something?

Garza: “Yes sir, we're suppose to look at it at least once every three years. However, when there are market transactions, and we started seeing more and more sales coming this year, and therefore, we had to look at (a lot of properties). If the (state) controller comes in and does their study, we don't want to be behind.” 

Okay, just take a home, let's say in McAllen on 16th street, take whatever street in McAllen you want -- how would you basically do the evaluation on that home this year, if you hadn't done it within the past three years?

Garza: “What we would do is look at the home firstto see if there are any new improvements, any additions, reductions, maybe they took some stuff off. After that, we would look at, okay, what sales do we have in that area? And we would take a price per square foot. What are homes selling for? Because every home is a different size, typically. We'll take a home selling for $80 a square foot and that's the number that we put to it so that we (get a fair market) value.

I’d say the other thing we're going to look at, is the homes that are selling, have they been remodeled? Do they have anything, that wasn't there before? So that we're not just saying that homes are selling for more, when in reality, it’s just because they added a new room or something. So we want to be sure that we are valuing it correctly before we say the values have increased.”

How many properties in Hidalgo County got an appraisal notice this year?

Garza: “About 45 percent of them got notices.”

Some people are crediting you with sinking the bond deal. You know that right?

Garza: “Yes, I've heard that I've single-handedly defeated that thing. I think it made people aware of what's to come. Whether it's a bond or just a regular increase in the tax rate. (Be aware), next year the values could increase again and you're going to get hit even higher.

“I think the public has to be aware of the tax system, not just the appraisal side of it. When they're coming up with their tax rates, be informed about what's going on.”

Sure, because there are a lot of sad foreclosures on properties. People can't pay their taxes as they are.

Garza: “We see that every day. It’s unfortunate.”

On one hand, it’s not bad that property valuations are bouncing back. On the other hand, you have to pay for it.

Garza: “Exactly. That’s correct.”