In this week’s Houston Press, Rich Connelly has an update on that big reduction Mayor White received on his home’s tax assessment:
Here’s the scenario so far: Houstonian Tim Hebert first noticed the reduction late last year; when he asked the Harris County Appraisal District the reason for the drop, he was told new flood plain maps had lessened the value of White’s home.
When we looked into it (see Hair Balls, February 21) HCAD told us the new floodplain map had nothing to do with it, and the agency had simply discovered that White’s home had been overvalued.
Then the Houston Chronicle followed up, and HCAD said…it was a matter of the new floodplain map. And White was just one of thousands of Houstonians who would eventually see such beneficial reductions.
Sounds perfectly clear.
We called HCAD again, just to see what the Answer of the Day would be. We can’t say we were too surprised to find out it’s back to “the new floodplain map had nothing to do with it.”
The current explanation, which still stands as we go to press (we make no guarantees beyond that): White’s home value was reduced because it was in a floodplain, but it’s in the floodplain under both the old and new maps. It is only a coincidence that the assessment was reduced at the same time the new map was issued, says HCAD’s Jason Cunningham.
“The floodplain is an issue that has always existed [on White’s property],” he said.
The new flood maps, he said, will affect other homeowners whose houses are all suddenly within the 100-year floodplain, and those assessments will be reduced. Eventually.
As we noted in the previous column, there’s no evidence that White himself did anything to get the favorable adjustment.
If you think HCAD handled the account any differently, or quicker, than it would for any other resident who might be living in a seriously overvalued home, then you’re just a cynical sort and we feel sorry for you.
We’ve yet to receive any uplifting stories from citizens who have received similar treatment, but we’ll repeat our call for such stories (send your story to publiustx-at-gmail.com).
