Texas Is Losing Out on Millions of Dollars Thanks to Its Defective Property-Tax System

[TexasTowelie]

After the private company Houston 8th Wonder purchased the former Six Flags AstroWorld site at Kirby Drive and Loop 610 for $77 million in May 2006, the Harris County Appraisal District turned around and said the empty 104-acre lot was worth $74 million. Instead of taking the $3 million savings and going home, Houston 8th Wonder's hired-gun lawyers bulldozed HCAD for the next six years in multiple courts and slashed the AstroWorld site's value to $31 million, resulting in significant lost property-tax revenue for Harris County.

Over the past 18 years, the Dallas Country Club, a members-only group that boasts a 100-acre golf course and dynamite views of the downtown Dallas cityscape, has routinely sued and prevailed over the Dallas Central Appraisal District. In 2013, the Highland Park property was appraised at a little under $22 million, a sum that critics say is ridiculous and allows the Mockingbird Lane club to skirt significant property-tax responsibility.

And in San Antonio, the posh JW Marriott Hill Country Resort & Spa, with a construction price tag that nearly eclipsed $600 million, has been able to lower its value by $125 million by winning multiple lawsuits against the Bexar County Appraisal District. At press time, two outstanding court cases — and millions more in property-tax revenue — are at stake between the resort and the appraisal district.

There are hundreds more cases — from El Paso to East Texas and at many points in between — that will likely be marked in the loss column for appraisal districts. At press time, the Travis Central Appraisal District was locked in a colossal tussle with the owners of Austin's Circuit of the Americas Formula One racetrack while in Port Arthur, a recent win by a Valero refinery forced the Jefferson County school districts to give back $16 million in tax revenue.

More at http://www.houstonpress.com/2014-05-01/news/texas-property-tax-assessments/ .

[randys1]

1. rightwing terrorists eating their own

they wont be happy until everyone around them is starving and there is NO infrastructure other than what they need personally

[bcool]

2. There are companies whose sole purpose is to reduce clients tax bills

I used to have a temp job at a company that existed to reduce the property tax bills of its clients. They had extensive files of a lot of area businesses (and several wealthy client's personal real estate), and they filed in court to have the bills lowered. They were quite successful at lowering the bills (and enriching themselves from fees paid by the clients). I was offered a full time job there but I felt dirty doing that....