GOVERNMENT Montgomery County facing $2.37B tax value loss
NAVIGATING SHORTFALLS Montgomery County saw a drop in property value heading into its 2023-24 budget preparations. Montgomery County FY 2023-24: $2.37B property value loss Translates to : $8.8M
BY JESSICA SHORTEN
Montgomery Central Appraisal District administration. McRae said a record number of lawsuits over property tax appraisals were filed, including 250 lawsuits filed in 2022 and 700 lawsuits filed in 2023. Over 19,500 protests from 2023 are also still under review, McRae said. A total of 11,000 homestead exemp- tion filings were delayed processing by MCAD, McRae said at the meeting. The influx of unprocessed exemptions caused a significant drop in taxable values, she said. An additional $61 million in value was lost in late July, but it could not be taken into account due to statutory deadlines on certification of the tax rolls, she said. “We’ve never had a year quite like this one. We lost a lot of value last year at certification,” McRae said. “I made an adjustment because I thought we would lose approximately $784.6 million [in value], and that’s more than ever before. Well, in reality,
we lost $2.37 billion.” Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said at the meeting the county would still work with the current rates for FY 2023-24, as the actual reduced values will not be used until the 2024-25 tax year. McRae said the county is not alone with this issue, which is affecting cities and school districts as well. “Anyone that offered a homestead exemption—city of Conroe, Conroe ISD and the other cities—are in the same shape,” McRae said. Monique Sharp, president of The Woodlands Township, said delays in receiving certified tax values have pushed back its preliminary budget preparations. “The township still hasn’t received its certified values and tax rates from the Montgomery County Tax Asses- sor’s Office,” Sharp said Aug. 4. “I can’t complete the budget until I have that data.”
A record number of tax appraisal lawsuits, rising home values and a backlog of 11,000 homestead exemp- tions led to a $2.37 billion tax value loss for Montgomery County, result- ing in an $8.8 million shortage in tax revenue in fiscal year 2023-24. On Aug. 10, the Montgomery County Commissioners Court approved a tax rate proposal of $0.3696 per $100 valuation, higher than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.3479 per $100 valuation. The tax rate and the $328.94 million FY 2023-24 budget will go to a public hearing at a Commissioners Court meeting Aug. 30. The budget is $7.9 million higher than the 2022-23 budget. Montgomery County Tax Asses- sor-Collector Tammy McRae said at an Aug. 1 meeting a total of $2.37 billion in taxable property value loss in the county was due to a number of factors that emerged from the previous
in lost property tax revenue Proposed FY 2023 budget: $328.94M Increase from FY 2022-23: $7.9M Proposed tax rate: $0.3696 per $100 valuation No-new-revenue tax rate: $0.3479 per $100 valuation
Aug. 30, 9:30 a.m., 501 N. Thompson St., Ste. 400, Conroe PUBLIC HEARING: SOURCES: MONTGOMERY COUNTY, THE WOODLANDS TOWNSHIP/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SMILE.
YOU’RE WORTH IT!
oodlandsDental.com
RESEARCH FOREST
CREEKSIDE
SCHEDULE ONLINE NOW!
6/1/23, 7:18 AM
Woodlands Website .png
27
THE WOODLANDS EDITION • AUGUST 2023
Powered by FlippingBook