Ord 1993-037 - Laserfiche WebLink

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)J-~ß 9 TA..X INFORMATION Ad Valorem Tax Law The appraisal of property within the City is the responsibility of the Hays County Appraisal District (the" Appraisal District"). Excluding agricultural and open-space land, which may be taxed on the basis of productive capacity, the Appraisal District is required under the Property Tax Code to appraise all property within the Appraisal District on the basis of 100% of its market value and is prohibited from applying any assessment ratios. The value placed upon property within the Appraisal District is subject to review by an Appraisal Review Board, consisting of three members appointed by the Board of Directors of the Appraisal District. The Appraisal District is required to review the value of property within the Appraisal District at least every three years. The City may require annual review at its own expense, and is entitled to challenge the determination of appraised value of property within the City oy petiion filed with the Appraisal Review Board. Reference is made to the Property Tax Code for identification of property subject to taxation; property exempt or which may be exempted from taxation, if claimed; the appraisal of property for ad valorem taxation purposes; and the procedures and limitations applicable to the levy and collection of ad valorem taxes. Article VIII of the State Constitution ("Article VIII") and State law provide for certain exemptions from property taxes, the valuation of agricultural and open-space lands at productive capacity, and the exemption of certaÎIi. personal property from ad valorem taxation. Under Section I-b of Article VIII and State law, the governing body of a political subdivision, at its option, may grant: (1) An exemption of not k~ss than $3,000 of the market value of the residence homestead of persons 65 years of age or older and the disabled from all ad valorem taxes thereafter levied by the political subdivision; (2) An exemption of up to 20% of the market value of residence homesteads with a minimum exemption of $5,000. State law and Section 2 of Article VIII mandate an additional property tax exemption for disabled veterans or the surviving SPOUSè or children of a dèceased vèteran who died while on active duty in the armed forces; the exemption applies to either real or personal property with the amount of assessed valuation exempted ranging from $1,500 to a maximum of $3,000. Article VIII providès that eligible owners of both agricultural land (Section I-d) and open-space land (Section I-d-l), including open-space land devoted to farm or ranch purposes or open-space land devoted to timber production, may elect to have such property appraised for property taxation on the basis of its productive capacity. The same land may not be qualified under both Section l-d and l-d-l. Nonbusiness vehicles, such as automobiles or light trucks, are exempt from ad valorem taxation unless the governing body of a political subdivision elects to tax this property. Boats owned as nonbusiness property are exempt from ad valorem taxation. Section I-j of Article VII! provides for "freeport property" to be exempted from ad valorem taxation. Freeport property is defined as goods detained in Texas tor 175 days or less tor the purpose of assembly, storage, manufacturing, processing or fabrication. The exemption became effective for the 1990-91 fiscal year and thereafter unless action to tax such property has been taken prior to April I, 1990. Decisions to continue to tax may be reversed in the future; decisions to exempt freeport property are not "ubject to reversal. The City has taken action to tax freeport property. Ad Valorem Tax Law as it Applies to the City The City grants an exemption to the market value of the residence homestead of persons 65 years of age or older of $10,000. The City has not granted any additional exemption to the market value of residence homesteads. The City does not tax nonbusiness vehicles. The City may enter into tax aoatement agreements to encourage economic development. Under the agreements, a property owner agrees to construct certain improvements on its property, the City in turn agrees not to levy a tax on all or part of the increased value attributable to the improvements until the expiration of the agreement. The abatement agreement could last for a period of up to 10 years. The City has adopted criteria for granting tax abatements which establish guidelines regarding the number of jobs to be created and the amount of new value to be added by the taxpayer in return for the abatement. The City has entered into several such abatement agreements in recent years. 13