Falls CAD approves $56K decrease for 2021 budget

The Falls County Appraisal District approved the budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year during its meeting on Aug. 20. 

There was a meeting with all of the contributing entities on Aug. 13, where requested changes were able to be voiced, as well as the district considered a number of them before releasing the final version.

The new budget shows a decrease in the personnel budget of about $60,000, which is due to two things - a position within the entity was dissolved, as well as significant changes were made to health insurance services. This is because of an interlocal agreement with Falls County where Falls CAD will save just over $15,000. 

There is an increase to the contract services budget of about $18,000, a nearly $5,000 increase to the operating expense budget, a $2,400 increase to the professional services budget

Thanks to technology updates that happened during FY20, there is a decrease to the capital outlay budget in the amount of about $21,000, which brings the budget to a total decrease of about $56,192.07.

The proposal was approved unanimously, with no contest during the public hearing. Total budget for FY21 is officially down to $762,430.54.

There was no contest during the public hearing for the Biennial Reappraisal Plan for 2021-2022 either. 

The plan details the way in which appraisals will happen for the next two years, splitting the entities between the two years. All of Groesbeck ISD and Westphalia ISD will be appraised during 2021, with one-half of each: Marlin; Chilton; and Rosebud-Lott ISDs being evaluated as well. 

The next year will follow a similar system of one-half of Marlin, Chilton, and Rosebud-Lott, along with Reisel, Lorena, Troy, Robinson, Bruceville-Eddy and Bremond ISDs.  

There are nearly 9,000 parcels of land set to be appraised in 2021 and over 10,000 planned for 2020. The Reappraisal Plan was approved unanimously.

Appraisal Review Board

Total numbers for FY2020 filed protests and ARB Hearings were released. There were 487 protests filed, 125 of which were heard by the ARB. All of these took place over the course of 10 days in both July and August. There are seven additional hearings scheduled for the month of December. There were 33 cases where the protestors did not appear and were considered a no show, while 322 protests were settled and waived or withdrawn. 

Lawsuit

A current lawsuit against Falls CAD has caused the district to have to spend 128 percent of their professional services budget for the 2020 year. The service that exceeds its budget by 211 percent is legal retainer fees. Chief Appraiser, Andrew Han and former Chief Appraiser, Allen Mckinley, have recently been added to the lawsuit. This means that the district has to spend additional funds in order to extend legal services to the both individuals. Because the scope of the lawsuit includes work that the men were doing for their respective positions, their legal counsel must be provided by Falls CAD. The district will provide representation from the same firm servicing Falls CAD.

Other

Minutes from the June meeting were approved. Financial reports for June 2020 and July 2020 were approved as presented, as well as the securities pledge report for June and July.