In May, El Paso voters will have to elect three of the nine members of the El Paso Central Appraisal District board, a sharp change from 40 years of local governments appointing members to the board that oversees the process of valuing properties for tax purposes.
The new election, which comes with a minimum $600,000 price tag, was approved by voters in November as part of a historic $18 billion tax relief bill, which included a requirement that three positions on the nine-member board be elected in counties with a population of 75,000 or more, rather than the full board being nominated and appointed by county taxing entities as it had been since the early 1980s.
“The taxpayers are going to have to fund substantial monies on these elections,” said Tanny Berg, chair of the El Paso Central Appraisal District board.
The El Paso appraisal district is responsible for appraising all property for taxing entities that impose property taxes in El Paso County. Taxing entities such as school districts, the city and county set tax rates. The rates and the valuation combine to determine how much tax each property owner must pay. The valuations are set based on recent sales of comparable properties or other means to estimate the fair market value.
Appraisal districts were mandated by state law in 1971. The law required the districts to be established by 1982 and El Paso’s was established in 1981.
The cost of the upcoming election – which must be paid for by the appraisal district – could double if a runoff is needed, said El Paso County Elections Administrator Lisa Wise.
“We don’t normally agree to contract an election in May of even-numbered years because of the primary and primary runoff,” Wise said of the March 5 Democratic and Republican primary elections.
Wise said they agreed to conduct this election because it is a unique situation and will be regularly held in November in the future, not in May, and a few smaller entities will be on the May ballot this year such as city of San Elizario, town of Anthony and a possible water district.
“We’re going to have to move monies around in our budget to be able to have the money for this,” said CAD Executive Director and Chief Appraiser Dinah Kilgore.
The special election will be May 4. Elected board members serve four-year terms.
Upcoming changes to the appraisal district board
The current nine-member board is made up of individuals who represent the various taxing jurisdictions in the county. Members are appointed by the governing bodies such as the county, school districts and incorporated towns and cities. The changes approved by voters in November 2023 calls for three elected and five appointed board members, with the county tax assessor-collector serving in an ex oficio role.
Because there are more taxing entities than positions on the board, Kilgore said the district has been using the three-quarter rule, which allows every area of the county to have representation on the board. The three-quarter method allows for taxing entities, including smaller ones, to pool their votes to ensure they have representation.
“We covered the entire county so that the representation on our board of directors was a true makeup of our county dynamics,” Kilgore said.
Board member Walter Miller, for example, represents some of the Lower Valley taxing entities, including municipal governments for Horizon City, Socorro, San Elizario, and Clint; the Clint, Socorro, Fabens, San Elizario and Tornillo school districts; as well as El Paso Community College.
The new method of electing three of the board members could reduce the representation of smaller taxing entities in the future because the change in law requires appraisal districts to use a tax levy system to determine how many votes each taxing entity gets toward the five appointed members. The higher the tax levy, the more votes that governing board gets.
“For example the city (El Paso) would have about 1,700 votes, but the town of Anthony would have eight votes – you see the big discrepancy,” Kilgore said.
Members of the board of directors that are appointed by the taxing entity will serve staggered four-year terms beginning on Jan. 1 of every other even-numbered year. Elected members will serve staggered four-year terms beginning on Jan. 1 of every other odd-numbered year, according to the updated tax code.
Appraisal board duties
The appraisal board is not directly involved in setting property valuations.
“Those of us who serve on the board … we have meetings and we go through sessions where we learn about assessments and all that, but by and large, we have very little authority,” Berg said.
The key responsibilities of the appraisal district board of directors are to establish appraisal districts, to hire the chief appraiser, set the budget and approve the biannual reappraisal plan. The directors have no authority to set values or appraisal methods.
The overall appraisal board is separate from the district’s appraisal review board, which presides over protests filed by property owners who want to challenge their land’s value. The review board members are appointed by the presiding district court judge in El Paso County. The appraisal review board can make changes or set a value in resolving taxpayer protests.
