Unless British Petroleum sells its Texas City Refinery at or very near the value?the complex is?listed on tax rolls of the Galveston County Appraisal District, three of the most important people in the property tax industry in the State of Texas are going to be revealed statewide as ones who sat back and did not do everything they could do to protect the public school finance system in Texas.
I have not included the chief appraiser in Galveston County in this mix because it would detract attention away from the three people in Texas who could do more and should do more to expose the degenerative impact that the phony issue of equity has had in giving the most valuable taxable property in Texas disproportionate benefit in a manner that rises to corporate welfare. Plus, Galveston County made a real effort to get to the bottom of this.?(More about that later in the column.)
While BP?s Texas City refinery is not within his jurisdiction, many other refineries are.? That?s why HCAD Chief Appraiser Jim Robinson belongs on this list.? He and his team have had several years to develop information exposing the impact of equity on these kinds of properties.? He and his team have had several years to forcefully communicate this information to the public, the jurisdictions of Harris County, and to the policy and lawmakers of Texas.
Rather, at this very moment, Chief Robinson and his team are fighting before the Attorney General of Texas to keep information presented at a public hearing an Appraisal Review Board protest hearing for Houston Refining held 2011 secret from public view.
Rather, at this very moment, Chief Robinson and his team are fighting before the Attorney General of Texas to keep information on how HCAD approached the issue of the equity value of refineries in the current tax year secret from public view.
Make no mistake about it.? The undervaluation of legitimately taxable property in Texas specifically involving refineries and major commercial properties such as Class A office buildings is driven by the Texas Legislature?s refusal to require sales disclosure information and its statistically goofy statutory definition of equity.
For no fewer than five years, HCAD?s team has been private moaners. However, when push came to shove, they were AWOL in the battle to protect the legitimate interests of all the other taxpayers who don?t have the resources to hire teams of lawyers, accountants, and consultants who breathe to live and live to spin reality with equal ease.
The other taxpayers of Texas should understand that Houston Refining came into an ARB meeting in Harris County in 2011 with a ?poster child? kind of presentation based strictly upon the standard of theoretical equity.? From inside the tent of HCAD, I was advocating that this hearing was the avenue to explain this issue statewide.? No deal!
As far as Comptroller Combs and PTAD Director Cartwright, their involvement reminds me of the old story about the role?played by the?chicken and the hog in breakfast.? The chicken participates in breakfast.? The hog is breakfast.
Let?s start with this premise in describing Combs and Cartwright.? They are not using the resources and power available to them to do what they could do to protect the interests of all taxpayers when it comes to these mega-value properties.
The Comptroller?s and PTAD?s so-called annual ratio study on the value of industrial property particularly?in industry-rich counties has the intellectual and professional substance of cotton candy.? Even on the high dollar commercial properties, these two state officials are not using the full resources to support appraisal districts who need the full power and resources of the State of Texas to have a chance to be successful against these powerful forces.
I talked about breakfast.? Think of it this way.? The central appraisal districts including HCAD are like the hog.? They are breakfast.? Appraisal districts are the ones that have to decide whether to spend a million dollars in a lawsuit against even one major taxpayer.? The notion of going to the courthouse against three or four or five or six becomes an impossible budgetary demand.
The comptroller and the PTAD director are like the chicken.? They sit and watch from a safe distance.? Then, about 18 months after the fact, they swoop in; lay an egg called the Property Value Study; and proclaim whether the appraisal districts did a good job in their Don Quixote struggle against these mega-value property owners who outgun them.
If Combs and Cartwright really wanted to maximize the legitimate property values of these major commercial and industrial properties, they would get out of the bleachers and get on the same field at the same time with the central appraisal districts.
The Comptroller?s and the PTAD?s ratio study of industrial properties including refineries is the?biggest rubber stamp in state governance.? Why won?t the Comptroller and the PTAD join this fight when it really matters?
The common denominator from a public policy standpoint is the public school finance system.? Susan Combs and Deborah Cartwright need to to do whatever they can do to muster full state support in accumulating the legal resources, the technical experts, and the extra cash that is needed to put the taxpayers of Texas on an equal battlefield with these industries who finance their efforts out of petty cash.
Back in 2007, in a moment of sheer, unmitigated public policy stupidity, the Comptroller of Public Accounts through its PTAD tried to punish Houston I.S.D. because the Comptroller thought the value of Class A office buildings in downtown Houston were dramatically undervalued.
The State created a scenario whereby the Harris County Appraisal District actually had to get in bed with owners and lawyers for the major downtown office buildings to fight the comptroller in order to defend lower values on many of these buildings.
It doesn?t get any dumber for the State of Texas to create a situation where central appraisal districts have to join with mega-value property owners in the battle to undervalue commercial properties and fight that fight against the State of Texas. What is so peculiar about the notion that the State and the central appraisal districts should join forces to protect the public school finance system?
It is long past time for the State to join forces with the central appraisal districts?BEFORE ?the battle begins and not afterwards. Susan Combs and Deborah Cartwright need to get the State of Texas to get in the ring before the fight begins.? Right now, they have grown comfortable to being engaged when the fighters are gone, the arena has emptied, and the rest of the taxpayers are picking up the tab for the consequences of their inaction or their indifference.
Galveston County made a genuine effort recently to fight for higher values on refineries.? And, when they looked around, the State was nowhere to be found.? That?s got to change.
Chief Robinson, Combs, and Director Cartwright have a decision to make:? change your strategies and fight this battle or get out of the way and let someone else have the jobs who will.
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