The Tarrant Appraisal Districts met Monday to discuss school districts’ opposition to the board’s budget and reappraisal plan.
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — School board presidents from nine Tarrant County Districts signed a letter accusing members of the Tarrant County Appraisal District of “intentionally harming” public schools after they passed a new appraisal plan.
On Aug. 9 members of the Tarrant Appraisal Board approved a plan to freeze residential property values until 2026, then conduct appraisals every other year. Currently, properties are appraised annually. The board also approved a measure that would make it harder to increase a home’s value by more than 5%. Under the proposal, the district would have to provide more evidence to justify such an increase.
That plan will have devastating effects on Tarrant County public schools, which rely heavily on property tax revenues as state contributions lag, the board presidents said. School districts have told appraisal district board members that under its current plan, state funding to schools would be further reduced, the letter states.
If the plan moves ahead, the school districts anticipate property values will fall outside a 10% difference from the state’s calculations. If that happens, it will result in an immediate funding loss from the state, the letter states.
“If the defunding of public schools were truly unintentional, then the TAD board had ample opportunity to correct its mistake,” the letter states. “Instead, they chose to intentionally harm the funding of public schools in Tarrant County.”
The concerns raised by the school district are based on a worst-case scenario, Vince Puente, chairman of the board, said.
“I don’t make all decisions based on the worst-case, we would never get anywhere if we did that,” Puente said.
School board presidents representing Fort Worth ISD, Castleberry ISD, Kennedale ISD, Crowley ISD, Lake Worth ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Northwest ISD, Everman ISD and White Settlement ISD signed the letter. The new rules were approved after Tarrant County voters elected three new Tarrant Appraisal District board members at large .
Along with the letter, nine school district boards passed a resolution opposing the appraisal district’s budget and nine districts opposed the reappraisal plan. The Tarrant Appraisal District Board met at 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9 to discuss school districts’ opposition to the district’s budget and reappraisal plan.
At the meeting, appraisal district board members said the change is aimed at making it easier for property owners to appeal their valuation, it is not intended to unilaterally lower taxes.
The newly-elected board members pushing the proposed changes, Eric Morris, Callie Rigney, and Matt Bryant campaigned on providing property tax relief. They were endorsed by several Republican elected officials, including Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare. The Tarrant Appraisal District is a non-partisan entity. O’Hare allegedly authored the changes to the appraisal plan, according to reporting from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“There is a lot of embellishing, there is a lot of emotion,” Gary Losada, a board member, said at the meeting. “Some people have called me a puppet of Tim O’Hare… I can tell you personally that I have had no discussions at any time relating to County Judge Tim O’Hare on defunding schools.”
Losada added that the school district’s assertion that the board sought to intentionally harm public schools is false.
When school district leaders met with appraisal district leaders, they displayed “a shocking lack of understanding regarding school funding laws,” the letter states.
“At the end of the day, it’s children who suffer,” the letter states. “It’s the elementary student struggling with reading who will no longer receive intervention assistance because a support position had to be eliminated. It’s the secondary student who will no longer be able to take part in their favorite extracurricular program because the program was cut. These are not probabilities – they are very harsh and forthcoming realities, the consequences of which have an exponential negative impact on children.”
The letter also casts doubt on the claim that the change in appraisals will amount to savings for taxpayers, who the letter claims will eventually be hit with higher tax bills and more uncertain valuations when going to sell their home.
Vince Puente, chairman of the board, acknowledged that when reappraisals restart in three years, homeowners may be surprised by how high their appraised home value increased after the pause.
Public commenters spoke against and in favor of the new reappraisal plan. Several commentators accused both the school districts and appraisal board of becoming expressly political.
“This whole thing has just turned political, this has gotten outside of people trying to solve a problem and now it’s just one side lobbing a bomb at the other,” Chandler Crouch, who’s helped thousands of Tarrant County residents protest their property valuations, said.
The discussion that took place Monday, Sept. 9 did not come with an action item. The reappraisal plan is set for now, but could be reconsidered next year, Losada said.
“None of this has to happen,” the letter reads. “Public schools serve as the foundation of a thriving community, and sacrificing public schools sacrifices the community. We call on the Tarrant Appraisal District Board of Directors to reverse course and engage in good-faith dialogue with school districts so children can receive the education they deserve.”