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UCAD: Appraisal protests decrease


Jennifer Fry

Staff Writer

Year-to-date protests for the Uvalde County Appraisal District were reported to be close to 1,200 at the regular board meeting of the district’s board of directors held Tuesday evening. Protests from previous years exceeded 1,600.

“This year turned out to be lower than expected,” said chief appraiser Roberto Valdez.

Board chairman Blaine Bennet commended Valdez for his openness and frequent communication with the community.

“Maybe one reason our protests are down,” he said, “is that we’re doing a little bit better job of letting people know what’s going on, what everything’s about.”

As of July 13, 605 protest cases were still scheduled for a hearing; 564 protests had been closed.

A protest is deemed closed for one of four reasons: the protestor withdrew complaint; an informal settlement was reached; the protestor failed to appear; or the issue had been sent to the appraisal review board for judgment.

UCAD has only handled 48 percent of the protests that have come in the door. The deadline to finalize up to 95 percent of these accounts is Wednesday.

“This was as of last Friday. We do have all this week and part of next week to hit the 95 percent mark,” Valdez said.

Until tomorrow, taxpayers may still file late protests with the district. Protestors must fill out a written protest form and submit a letter stating why they could not make the June 25 protest deadline.

The protest will then be sent directly to the appraisal review board, which will either authorize or not authorize a late-protest hearing.

For anyone who filed in a timely manner, UCAD staff first reviews the protest and makes contact with the protestor to try to resolve the issue. The UCAD office does not handle late protests.

Inquiries

Inquiries submitted to the district are also down from previous years.

Though the two – protests and inquiries – are similar and somewhat related, they are not the same.

“A protest is a protest form that is actually signed by the property owner,” Valdez explained to board members. “An inquiry could be anything from an informal visit with a property owner to an office recommendation pursuant to any changes that we do on an account.”

Inquiries can be both customer-generated and generated by staff members. The resolution of an inquiry could change the valuation of a property by lowering its value.

Five hundred walk-ins were fielded by Valdez’s office as of the end of May, some of which were inquires. They are not taking walk-ins at this time.

Valdez is working to take care of every inquiry that has come through his office by handing the case back to its last appraiser or giving it to whichever appraiser has the fewest cases at the time.

Delinquent Tax Report

Francesca Cammack, representing Purdue Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott, LLC, out of Amarillo, UCAD’s hired delinquent tax attorney, brought the delinquent tax report.

As of the middle of June, Purdue Brandon had collected $946,481 of the delinquent taxes from 2016 and had filed 20 new lawsuits.

The largest concentration of delinquent taxes from that period are between $1,000 and $5,000 per taxpayer. One account is in bankruptcy.

Sixty-two formal payment contracts have been set up, which total $95,000. If the contract defaults, the firm contacts the taxpayer and gives him one week to reply before moving forward with a formal lawsuit.

Purdue Brandon allows a total of two defaults on an account before moving it to lawsuit.

“We really look at it on a case-by-case basis,” said Cammack. “We really do try to work with taxpayers because we know nobody doesn’t want to do their part.”

The only way to guarantee that the firm does not bring a lawsuit against the delinquent taxpayer is to set up a payment contract.

Cammack reported there were 86 deferrals of delinquent accounts totaling just above $300,000.

A tax deferral is something a taxpayer can apply for if disabled or over 65. It allows the taxes to be paid once the taxpayer is either dead or no longer living at the given property.

The next tax sale is scheduled for October.

Other Business

The meeting opened at 5:20 p.m., with all board members present except J Allen Carnes. There were no public comments.

Valdez reported to the board that tax levies collected by his office between October of 2017 and July of 2018 totaled $39,800,000, down from $39,840,000 at the same time last year. Levies were expected to total $40 million by September.

“It is very comparable to prior years,” he told the board. “We are hitting the $40 million mark.”

The annual collection rate as of July 1 was 94.6 percent. The amount of delinquent taxes for the year totaled $2,137,513.

The board went into closed session with its attorney at 5:49 p.m. A discussion regarding a complaint against a district employee was handled within closed session.

Roberto Valdez

Roberto Valdez

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