By Chris Moore

chris.moore@panews.com

 

BEAUMONT — The Jefferson County effective tax will not increase despite loss of property value from Tropical Storm Harvey, County Judge Jeff Branick said.

The effective tax rate is the rate the county needs to generate the same amount of revenue as the previous year on the same properties taxed from the previous year.

“Actually, I was concerned that with the destruction of 21,000 homes in the county, that we would lose money because of the loss of property value,” he said. “We did. We lost $148 million in value on the tax roll.”

Branick said letters were sent to homeowners after the storm, which stated if their home were damaged to fill out an accompanying form and send it back to the county. The letters would’ve allowed the county to accurately assess home damage.

“They didn’t get back 21,000. They didn’t even get back half of 21,000. A lot of people didn’t take advantage of that and they’re going to have to appeal. They also missed the deadline to contest their valuations,” he said.

The effective tax rate is largely based off property values. If property values increase, then the effective tax rate typically stays the same or decreases. A decrease in property value like what Jefferson County experienced usually means an increase in the tax rate.

Branick said that local spending and sales tax collections not only made up for the loss of property value, it increased the total revenue by $3 million.

“Last year, we forecasted to spend $12.7 million into reserves,” Branick said. “We’re actually going to spend about $1 million into reserves. We don’t ever spend what we predict. This year, we are forecasting to spend less than that.”

Whether or not taxes increase is not based on the previous year’s rates. The circumstances are rarely the same as the previous year, especially for this year. An increase in taxes occurs only if the tax rate exceeds the effective tax rate.

The effective tax rate is about 37.5 cents, Branick said.

“Our tax rate is 36.4,” he said. “We could go up to 42 cents without needing the rollback rate. We’re going to leave the tax rate where it is, particularly this year, with so many people trying to recover.”