People who own property in the Austin area recently received new valuations from the local appraisal district. This number, known as your appraised value, estimates what your property would currently sell for in Austin’s record-breaking housing market. The appraisals are a lot higher than they were last year. According to the Travis Central Appraisal District, […]
property tax appraisal
The value of property as determined for use in assessing area property taxes.
Posted inTexas State Legislature
Legislature makes tax caps a priority, cities respond
Well-worn battle lines between the city and state were retraced Tuesday, as the Texas Legislature made it clear that it would be making property tax caps a priority this session. The response from area cities was just as clear. Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) framed the unveiling of SB-2 (and the accompanying committee report) as a […]
Posted inAustin
Regional Affordability Committee takes first steps
Though they have a long road ahead of them, members of Austin’s Regional Affordability Committee are taking a measured approach to developing a strategic plan to achieve their goals. Rather than take action at their second meeting on Monday, members made several requests for information from Budget Office staff and agreed to develop and adopt […]
Posted inElections, Local Politics
Travis County talks appraisals, city business
In a discussion on state legislative proposals aimed at increasing fairness in property tax appraisals for homeowners, several Travis County commissioners called out City of Austin leaders for not implementing a 20 percent homestead exemption for property taxes. Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said that while the proposed citywide exemption “was an easy deal to run on,” […]
Posted inLocal Government, Radio, Travis County
Austin Monitor Radio, Show 24: Judge-elect Sarah Eckhardt
Travis County Judge-elect Sarah Eckhardt joins Monitor publisher Mike Kanin for a look ahead to her tenure on Commissioners Court. Topics include Secure Communities, SH45, video-conferenced jail visits and much more. Program is below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/176628557″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Posted inLocal Government, Local Politics
City works to challenge commercial property values
City Council continues to move forward with a potential challenge to commercial property values in the city, but there are still some details to be worked out. The push to challenge commercial property appraisals comes at a time when Austinites are seeing steep increases in their home valuations and property taxes. Recent research has shown […]
Posted inLocal Government
Travis County employees wonder whether they will get a raise
Travis County Commissioners will spend their week discussing funding requests that the Planning and Budget Office did not include in its estimated $901 million Fiscal Year 2015 preliminary budget. Out of 16 total budget hearings, the majority will focus on funding to hire new staff. The Court will also hear from the Travis Central Appraisal […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government, Local Politics
Austin Monitor Radio, Show 8
Travis County Intergovernmental Relations coordinator Deece Eckstein joins Monitor publisher Mike Kanin to talk about the ongoing controversy surrounding Travis County’s tax appraisal process. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/160017629″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Government
County, state candidates continue to push for property tax reform
Local governments need to look at their non-taxed property and sell it back into private hands if it is underused, according to Sarah Eckhardt, Democratic candidate for Travis County Judge. Eckhardt told a property tax town hall audience Friday that this would put money back into local government coffers through both the sale of property […]
Posted inDevelopment, Local Politics
Council holds off on appraisal petition, postpones action until 2015
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 […]
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 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 […]