By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1
Dallas, TX – So about a month ago, almost to the day Dallas voted down the pay hike for police and firefighters - strictly coincidence, I'm sure - North Texas homeowners received the good news. Some of our property values went up. The bad news? So did our property taxes. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.
It was sort of one of those mixed-feeling days when I opened up the letter from my county appraisal board. I mean, who in their right mind won't be pleased to see their property value went up 14% in one year. Could I really sell my house today for that price in this sluggish, slow, depressed, not-sure-if-we're-out-of-the-recession economy? I don't think so. Then I looked a little bit further and saw just how much my taxes would go up. That's when that other feeling came in. You must be kidding!
Now I would do anything to support the public school system. Kids or no kids, we need to give our future tax appraisers the best education we can. But this just doesn't make any sense, so I'm protesting. Not by singing "Power to the People" in front of my county appraiser - haven't sung that in about thirty years - but with a letter that needs to be postmarked by tomorrow, that's Friday, May 31st. Or I could always go and stand in line. Anyway, if you're one of the thousands of people like me, protesting is a must.
So what are the odds that our tax liability will go down by formally protesting? Last year in Dallas County, anywhere from 40 to 60% of the homeowners who protested saw a lower appraisal. Tarrant County was worse. Of the over 55,000 that filed a formal protest, only about 13,000 showed up for their hearing and a little over 8000 of those saw a reduction. Showing up at the selected hearing date seems to be the first hurdle. Compiling all the important stats to negotiate with the appraisal board is the next. But I refuse to go down without trying. I'll keep you posted. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 P.M.