Taxpayers for Equal Appraisal Access Information!
Taxation must be equal and uniform!

Property taxes must be equal and uniform.
Protesting taxes must be a fair and equitable process.
All property must be valued and taxed equally and uniformly.

Taxpayers for equal appraisal!
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Email us:  coachdanhart@msn.com

HCADTEA.ORG is a non-profit organization established to help you understand how to protest your property taxes, both real property and business property, so that you can save money.  In a perfect world, your property would be taxed fairly and uniformly.  We are here to help you understand how property taxes are set, both in Houston and Harris County, Texas, and, in fact, all over the taxed world. This information is applicable throughout the entire United States of America.

SEVEN HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IMPROVEMENTS FOR APPRAISAL DISTRICTS. Equal and uniform property taxation is a must for both the Taxpayers who give the money and the Folks (the CADS*) who take the money! *County Appraisal Districts Do you know how the county appraisal district folks are graded and checked on how good a job they are doing in fairly appraising your property? Their report card is called The Property Value Study of Texas. Let’s say you have a boy or girl in the University of Texas System and you are told that your boy or girl is doing a great job in The University System! You then ask The University of Texas to show you the test results that their statement is based on. Set out below is the story you get and let us see if you get it? WE THE PEOPLE... "No greater asset accrues to the appraiser than uniformity in appraisal. Nothing so discourages complaint. On the other hand, from the standpoint of the public, nothing so stimulates resentment, revolution, and rebellion as a feeling of discrimination or favoritism in taxation. The greatest asset of merchant, manufacturer or real estate owner is his sense of security in the enjoyment of equality of appraisement with his neighbor." JOHN A. ZANGERLE, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, ASSESSOR 1930’s   Giving the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test answers to your child before the exam that supposedly evaluates your child’s intelligence level and the school’s performance of its responsibilities and trustworthiness is the same as taxation appraisal by sales chasing! For example: let us say that a property sells in September 2001, and HCAD has its appraisal date as of January 1, 2002. On Page 75 of the USPAP standards (which is an appraisal book), it states when the appraiser knows the sales price before the date of the setting of the value, then that appraisal is misleading! An appraisal is an opinion of value. A sales price can be over, it can be under, and it can be dead on. But, the sales price is not an absolute test of the value! The test of the value is based on the individual characteristics of each property. Then, HCAD translates the characteristics into value. But often county appraisal districts (cads) use the sales price for the opinion appraisals. That is not the way it works. That is not equitable or fair to you, the property taxpayer. Furthermore, the cads, i.e. county appraisal districts then select, pick and choose a small number of their (students) chased sales to be used on their "TAAS Test" ratio study that supposedly grades how equal and uniform the appraisal district balances yours and your neighbor’s check book! THE KEY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER. Assume your child’s school, The University of Texas, has 1,000 students (chased sales) that are tested to evaluate the performance of the University of Texas System which has "in the whole shooting match" as of Spring 1999, 146,465+ total students BUT only101 of the 1,000 tested students (chased sales) are picked by UT (the county appraisal districts) (the CADS) to be ranked from high to low score. Finally, the test (ratio study) results of student (chased sale) number 51 from top or bottom grades and positively confirms how equal and uniform yours along with your neighbor’s check book are balanced by the district’s Perfect Appraisal! WE, AT TAXPAYERS FOR EQUAL APPRAISAL, THINK NOT! WHAT DO YOU THINK?   note:  It is believed these eyeglasses were the style of glasses worn by President Abraham Lincoln.   Now let’s think together on some better ways to evaluate the work of county appraisal districts. Step 1: Retrospective appraisal where the appraiser uses a known sale price or a known list price to match the opinion value SHALL not be used on any equity ratio study. Step 2: True arms-length appraisals SHALL be time adjusted up or down by a time factor set by the Comptroller for local areas. Step 3: If the characteristics of a property change between the CAD opinion appraisal date and the sale date then that property SHALL be deleted from the EQUITY PROPERTY VALUE STUDY. Step 4: Expert independent appraisals SHALL be conducted whenever possible to provide outside objectivity. Step 5: Each and every sale that the county appraisal district folks are aware of SHALL be provided to the State Property Tax Division for their independent as near as possible RANDOM sample selection. Step 6: Any school district that would lose State Aid due to county appraisal district’s ERRORS shall have a one-year exemption. Step 7: Appraisal districts that precipitate STEP 6 SHALL publish and announce state wide their appreciation for the award Texas Taxpayers have given their schools during the exemption period!

What is the taxpayer's role? You can play an effective role in the process..... if you know your rights, understand the remedies available to you,  and fulfill your responsibilities.

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