District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez wants a comprehensive study of how property valuations are conducted at the Bexar County Appraisal District.
Pelaez has filed a council consideration request for the city to commission a study to be conducted with the goal of understanding the process of how properties get their value.
“I think that more eyes and third party scrutiny is always better,” he said.
Currently, San Antonio makes up about 22 percent of a tax bill while school districts make up about 48 percent. Other entities like the San Antonio River Authority, University Hospital District, the Alamo Colleges and other entities make up the remaining 30 percent.
Seeking property tax relief is the goal of many elected officials, including Pelaez.
Specifically Pelaez wants an analysis of how property appraisals affect business development in Bexar County as compared to other counties. He said, in some instances, commercial property can be overvalued compared to homes, which can lead to lawsuits from the property owners. The Bexar County Appraisal District receives hundreds of lawsuits a year over property valuations.
“This data I suspect is going to show that if you do business or own property in Bexar County that you will be treated differently than if you do business or own property in Webb County or Harris County,” he said.
Pelaez wants the data created because he says there is a lack of comparative property tax data.
“I want a debate armed with mathematics and once we’ve got that math I think that is the missing puzzle piece to all of us having a very intellectually honest and difficult conversation,” Peleaz said. “Government entities in San Antonio owe it to the public to talk about not just what we’re going with your tax dollars but how it is we come about getting your tax dollars.”
Paleaz’s request has the support of council member’s Viagran, Saldana, Sandoval and Perry. He’s asked the mayor to consider it at the next meeting of the council’s governance committee.
Joey Palacios can be reached at Joey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules.
