When the Jefferson County Appraisal District worked out values for homes, businesses and utilities last year, it valued property far below what the state did in its biennial audit of property values across the state.
As a result, school districts did not receive the same amount of taxes the state expected them to, putting some of them at a substantial loss.
In Port Arthur, the Independent School District is working with an Austin-based law firm to appeal the state valuations in an attempt to claw back some of the $5 million or so in lost funding.
PAISD Superintendent Mark Porterie summarized the predicament at the a school board meeting earlier this month.
“Jefferson County Appraisal District did the values for Jefferson County, and the state says that the values were too low,” Porterie said. “So, the state’s values are higher and they aren’t giving us the difference.”
The losses are particularly damaging to the district, which absorbed unrelated losses as local refineries contested their value to the appraial district, thereby keeping tax dollars the school district already had planned to receive from the refineries.
Phyllis Geans, the district’s Chief Financial Officer, said the state comptroller’s office has to approve the valuations that the school district is contesting.
The firm Port Arthur ISD is working with, Perdue, Brandon Fielder Collins and Mott LLP, also is appealing values for Beaumont ISD — a process that began last month and could take several more.
“The company is looking at the values and how they were calculated, and we may be able to get some back,” Porterie said. The company will receive 10% of whatever is recovered.
In addition to Jefferson County, four other counties across Southeast Texas failed the comptroller’s audit.
“The 2020 study definitely was a record year for the number of school districts that did not pass,” said Carol Pope-Osborne, the appeals director for the firm working with the district.
If the firm is able to get the state and local funding within a margin of error of each other, the districts will be given a grace period to avoid losing funding.
Valuations in several categories are being appealed, including single-family residential, multifamily residential, commercial and utilities.
Single-family homes were appraised at 88% of the value from the state, outside of the margin of error.
Utilities, including Kansas City Southern Railroad “were very helpful in assisting and providing data” for the district and the firm to supplement appeals, Pope-Osbonre told The Enterprise.
According to the Comptroller’s office, the Legislature requires an independent estimate of taxable property value in each school district to ensure fair school funding as part of its response to court challenges about unfair distribution of school funding.
Porterie stressed at the meeting that while the district stands to take a hit, it is not in charge of appraising taxable values.
“This has nothing to do with PAISD,” he said. “This is values that were taken by JCAD and now the state is saying the values were too low, that’s why we had a decrease in our funding. The state is not going to give us any more money because they are saying you should have gotten your money from the local funds.”
As current tax-assessed values are released this week, Jefferson County tax assessor Allison Getz is sharing that she too does not set property values.
“The commercial property in Jefferson County is averaging an increase of 40%. I don’t know how that’s going to affect our refineries, but commercial property in the county,” Getz said. “The main thing … I want to make sure that everyone realizes that the tax office does not determine value. While I welcome everyone to call my office and I love visiting, we were not responsible for increasing values. All of the calls need to be directed to the appraisal district.”
isaac.windes@hearstnp.com
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