It will be another week before the Scurry County Appraisal District (SCAD) will begin advertising for a chief appraiser.
Following a nearly one hour closed session today, the board did not take action on advertising the position because the agenda did not state directors would take action following the closed session.
However, board chairman Fred Cross announced that Senior Appraiser John Stewart will not accept the chief appraiser position at this time. On Sept. 11, the agenda will include a discussion on the chief appraiser position and the naming of an interim chief appraiser, Cross said.
Stewart did not want to comment on the reason he turned down the position, which he was hired for on Aug. 7.
“I am willing to have the position posted. I want to do what is right for the taxpayers,” Stewart said during an Aug. 21 meeting between local taxing entities and SCAD officials, as well as attorneys for both sides, when discussing terms to reappraise Kinder Morgan properties in Scurry County.
Board members did vote to seek bids for a mineral industrial appraisal contractor. SCAD has a two-year contract with Thomas Y. Pickett and Company that expires at the end of this year.
During last week’s meeting, Chief Appraiser Larry Crooks presented board members with a cost survey of six other appraisal districts that use a mineral appraisal firm. SCAD pays Pickett $109,000 each year to perform mineral appraisals and to maintain the ownership of those mineral records. The other counties pay between $118,000 and $320,000 for the service.
Crooks said during last week’s meeting that five of the nine taxing entities that fund SCAD said they did not want to change firms. Crooks said Ira ISD, Hermleigh ISD, City of Snyder, Roscoe Collegiate ISD and Colorado ISD responded that they did not want to change.
Scurry County, Snyder ISD, Western Texas College and Scurry County Hospital District — the four taxing entities that filed a lawsuit against SCAD — did not respond to Crooks’ survey.
Crooks told the board that one company said a switch in appraisers should begin in October.
Stewart updated the board on legislative issues discussed during a recent Texas Association of Appraisal Districts meeting. He said state lawmakers will once again look at capping the effective tax rates entities may set.
During the 2017 legislative session, lawmakers discussed, but never sent to the governor, a bill that would decrease the cap of the rollback rate from 7.9999 percent to 5 percent. A tax increase of 5 percent or more would be subject to a rollback election.
Stewart said lawmakers will also discuss making each county’s Appraisal Review Board (ARB) a separate entity, apart from the appraisal district. He said that will cost counties more money because the board will have to have a staff and separate bank accounts.
“(Lawmakers) are looking at ARB reform,” Stewart said, adding some counties are holding hearings at larger locations due to increased protests.
Stewart said a Supreme Court decision is also expected soon concerning whether heavy equipment used by companies will be appraised. Currently, the equipment is part of the appraisal process, but companies have asked for it to be taken off the books.
“Companies spend millions and millions on this stuff,” he said of the equipment. “In the county, we are looking at some $200 million coming off the tax roll if it (ruling) favors the company. That will impact our entities.”
Stewart said plans are being made to have legislation filed to keep heavy equipment on the tax rolls.