The Austin City Council backed away from filing a challenge petition over the Travis Central Appraisal District’s commercial property valuation process early Friday, voting instead to postpone any action until 2015. But Council members will not be sitting on their hands. Instead, they have assigned city staff to work with experts to figure out […]
Beth Cortez-Neavel
Beth Cortez-Neavel is a contributing reporter covering Travis County for the Austin Monitor. Beth works in words, data, photography and radio. She's a long-time Austinite living in the District 1 area.
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government
Commissioners scrap petition to challenge commercial appraisals
Over the past two weeks, there has been a quickly escalating debate over the whether the Travis County Commissioner Court should file a challenge petition with the Travis Central Appraisal District regarding the undervaluation of county commercial properties. However, after a long day in court, and a drawn-out executive session, the Commissioner’s Court decided […]
Posted inLocal Government
District Attorney tells Commissioners new law adding to workload
District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg asked the Travis County Commissioner’s Court Tuesday for extra funding to help manage attorney workloads under the state’s new Michael Morton Act. The act, passed by the Texas Legislature during the 2013 session, requires all Texas prosecutors to widen their scope of obtaining evidence pertaining to a criminal case. Prosecutors […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government
Travis Commissioners may petition TCAD to level tax assessments
The Travis County Commissioner’s Court held a rare Monday meeting to discuss filing a petition with the Travis Central Appraisal District in response to the public’s anger over a steep rise in residential property taxes. The petition would address the low property tax valuations assigned to commercial properties, which seems to place an unfair […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government
Appraisal District chief emphasizes differences with Travis County
The Travis County Commissioner’s Court got a lesson in the inner workings of the Travis Central Appraisal District Tuesday. The Commissioner’s Court has been criticized recently for seemingly washing its hands of the public’s outcry at the steep rise in property taxes and property appraisal rates, especially in the fast-growing Austin metro area. However, […]