Posted on 04/07/2005 5:47:10 PM PDT by anymouse
A June 2004 meeting between Friendswood school officials and the chief appraiser of the Galveston County Central Appraisal District was to keep the school district from losing state funding because under-appraised homes in six Friendswood subdivisions, said FISD superintendent Trish Hanks.
The meeting has become fodder for Houston talk radio station KSEV and its Lone Star Times web site, with allegations that the district tried to bring unwarranted influence to bear on the appraisal district to boost property values and therefore permit a "stealth" tax increase.
In the arcane process of property appraisal for tax purposes, Hanks said the state comptroller's office appraises property in the school district for the purpose of determining state funding. That process occurs about six months after the county appraisal district conducts its own evaluation.
"What you want is for those two numbers (the state and county appraisals) to be the same," Hanks said Monday.
If the state appraisal is higher than the local appraisal, then state funding is adjusted downward to match the county valuation. When that happened in 2001, Friendswood ISD lost $1.3 million out of $10 million in state funding because of lower local values. The district then had to spend $130,000 "enough for three teachers (salaries)," Hanks said, to appeal the state decision.
The $130,000 bill for the appeal "was just paid off this year," Hanks said.
Last May, when it looked like low county appraisals in six subdivisions might again trigger a state cut of as much as $1 million, the FISD board voted for Hanks and several board members to meet with county appraisal officials with their concerns. The item was listed on a publicly posted agenda for the May 26, 2004 board meeting.
The subdivisions were Sun Meadow, Castle Park, Regency Estates, Regency Estates Section Four, Carmel Village and The Forest Section Seven.
Hanks, three school trustees and county chief appraiser Ken Wright then met privately to discuss the Friendswood issue. The letter that KSEV and Lone Star Times acquired through an open records request and then published and discussed last week was from Wright to Hanks after the meeting, informing her and FISD that he was discussing the Friendswood situation with his staff. The letter had been kept on file at the school district.
"I briefed my staff on the importance of value increases to our taxing entities and emphasized the significance of every taxpayer's hearing," Wright said in the letter. "While it is always wise to pay close attention to our property owners' concerns, it is also important to keep the needs of our taxing jurisdictions in mind."
That last comment is what set off KSEV manager Dan Patrick, who hosts the evening drive time slot, and morning host Edd Hendee, with both alleging during last week and this that Wright's comment was prove of collusion and influence between the school district and the appraisal district.
Patrick had Wright on his Monday afternoon show, and asked him several times who on the five-member appraisal district board was appointed to represent homeowners.
"Well, they're all homeowners," Wright replied.
Appraisal district directors are appointed based on the size of the taxing entity in Galveston County. The Clear Creek Independent School District is the largest taxing entity in the county, and has the weight to appoint as many as two of the five directors, Wright said. Most taxing entities in the county have only a fractional vote for a director appointment.
Discussion of the letter, FISD and the county appraisal district on the Lone Star Times was overtaken last week by national and world events, the deaths of Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II. As of press time, there were few comments being left on the site's message board related to the matter.
Galveston County Tax Assessor Cheryl Johnson was quoted in the Galveston Daily News over the weekend as saying that the matter at very least should have been discussed by FISD and the appraisal district in an open forum. Johnson said the private meeting left the impression that the district was trying to influence an increase in property values.
The Lone Star Times had tried to bring more light to bear on the matter last week when it headlined discussion of the letter with, "Documents reveal Friendswood ISD officials manipulating, pressuring appraisal process to maximize tax burden on homeowners."
Hanks said Monday that she would welcome any chance to discuss with FISD taxpayers and answer any of their questions. She did not respond to a request from KSEV to appear on any of their talk shows, a point Patrick made several times during his Monday broadcast.
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