Expect property tax statements in mail soon

“We are on time this year with our tax statements,” Lee said after the meeting about roughly 43,000 statements to be mailed. “The last day to pay taxes without penalty and interest is Jan 31, 2023. We encourage you to pay early to avoid waiting and standing in long lines.”

After Jan. 31, interest and penalties begin to accrue with 7% added in February, 9% in March, 11% in April, 13% in May and 15% in June, Lee said.

“I think we will be in good shape next year,” consultant Petree said of efforts the past two years to bring Lamar County appraisals within 95% of the values as determined by the Texas Comptroller’s property tax study. Both Prairiland ISD and Paris ISD in 2021 were in the third consecutive year of values beneath the acceptable range, a finding that will prompt a review of 2022 appraisal values and which required a public hearing last week during which Petree spoke.

“At least until now, we have been shooting at a moving target that continues to rise,” Petree said as he explained that local appraisals for property in both districts are expected to be slightly higher than the 95% requirement when the comptroller study comes out at the end of January.

“Right now we are at $1.321 billion in appraised values and the state says we should be at $1.220 billion,” Petree said., “So we have about $100 million, roughly, to compensate for values increasing, which is about 8%.”

Going forward, Petree predicts “a crash in the housing market.”

“I really do believe that’s going to occur because interest rates yesterday are at 6.5% for a 30-year mortgage,” Petree said. “That’s going to kill the housing market.”

Now in his second year as a consultant for the appraisal district, Petree first trained staff and shared a metric system used in appraising all commercial property in the county with which staff reappraised property including hotels, apartment complexes and restaurants. In his second year, Petree trained staff to use a similar metric system with residential appraisals.

Petree currently is under an hourly contract at $125 an hour, not to exceed $10,000 after completing a first year contract of $20,000.

In the appraisal business for 40 years, Petree served as chief appraiser in Taylor County from 1976 until his retirement in 2013 when he turned his efforts to consulting with appraisal districts across the state. In 1988, he was presented the Earl Luna Award by the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts, recognizing him as the outstanding Chief Appraiser in Texas that year. He has authored several articles for the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts, and under his leadership, the appraisal district in Abilene received the Excellence in Assessment Administration Award from the International Association of Assessing Officers in 2013, the first appraisal district in Texas to receive the award.

Lamar County Appraisal District is located at 521 Bonham Street. Hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For those taxpayers who mail a payment and want a receipt, the district asks that a self-addressed stamped envelope be included. Office staff can be reached at 903-785-7822 and the district’s website is www.lamarcad.org.