During the upcoming weeks, the Appraisal District's Notices of Appraised Value will be mailed to San Saba County property owners. The notices will focus on value only, and the tax statement with your total amount due will be mailed in October. As always, please check your notice to ensure that correct exemptions are shown and that your owner information is accurate, including physical and mailing addresses.
The appraisal district appraises property located in the county, while local taxing units set the tax rates. The governing body of each unit decide whether property taxes increase. The appraisal district only determines your properties of value. The taxing units will set tax rates later this year. The Texas State Comptroller Auditor checks local sales in San Saba County and compares those sales to appraisal district values. If the appraisal district values are not within 0.5% variance of the sales ratio, the Appraisal District will fail the audit. If the Appraisal District fails an audit three years in a row, the school districts in San Saba County will not receive their funding. It is imperative to keep the property values within this variance in our county. Demand for housing has increased, and it seems that many city dwellers are looking at smaller communities since they are working from home and wanting to escape life in the cities. This has tremendously increased the property value in San Saba County.
When the taxpayer looks at the value proposed by the appraisal district, they should ask themselves if their property would likely sell for that amount. If not, they should file a protest form included in the notice and return it to the appraisal district office prior to the indicated deadline. The San Saba Chief Appraiser and the Field Appraisers will meet with taxpayers informally and discuss the appraisal information with the person protesting. If the appraisal district has misjudged the value, we will offer a settlement which may be accepted by the owner, or it can be appealed to a formal hearing with the Appraisal Review Board (ARB). The Appraisal Review Board is a group of local citizens who live in the county and have been appointed by the local administrative District Judge. They will listen to the evidence provided by both parties and make a decision based on the preponderance of the evidence presented. The taxpayer may appeal the findings of the ARB to District Court or arbitration. To the meeting, the owner should bring in evidence that might support a change in value, such as: pictures of issues, estimates of costs to cure problems or closing statements for recently purchased property.
"The Appraisal District would like to ensure the community that we constantly strive to provide fair, equitable appraisals that produce a tax base for local taxing entities. Once the entity's annually dropped tax rate is applied to the taxable values within its jurisdiction, the resulting tax levy provides operational revenue for the county, cities and school districts," states Chief Appraiser Jan Vanderberg.
Property owners with questions regarding value or the protest process are urged to contact the office at 325-372-5031. Online protests are available on our webpage at <www.sansabacad. org>, and you can follow the distinct instructions from your appraised value that you receive in the mail. Online protests can only be filed if:
• the property is classified as residential single family
• the property is your residence homestead (you have homestead exemption on the account)
• You have not designated an agent to represent you