Menard County Appraisal District
Appraisal Standards Review Follow-Up Report
July 23, 2009
The Honorable George Sultemeier, Board Chairman
Ms. Dianna Miller, Chief Appraiser
Menard County Appraisal District
P.O. Box 1008
Menard, Texas 76859-1008
Dear Chairman Sultemeier and Chief Appraiser Miller:
This letter constitutes the Comptroller’s follow-up review of the Appraisal Standards Review (ASR) of Menard County Appraisal District (Menard CAD) originally released in June 2008. We commend the cooperation of Menard CAD’s board, chief appraiser and staff in conducting this follow-up review.
CADs play an integral part in setting property values because they have the statutory responsibility for determining local property values, in turn affecting funding to public schools — a critical part of the state’s tax and education policies.
The ASR made four mandatory recommendations and two other recommendations to help Menard CAD achieve accurate local value in the annual Property Value Study and improve operations. The Comptroller acknowledges the work Menard CAD has performed over the last year. The CAD has completed three of the four mandatory recommendations and all of the other recommendations. These completed recommendations have assisted the CAD in improving its staffing, management and appraisal practices.
We also reviewed the implementation of the remaining recommendations. Work is in progress on mandatory recommendation 4. Enclosed is more detail on what the CAD still needs to do.
This letter is available on our Window on State Government Web site at www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/cadreports/asr/menard01/.
I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely,
Susan Combs
Enclosure
cc: Superintendent and Board of Trustees, Eden Consolidated Independent School District;
Mason Independent School District; and Menard Independent School District
Menard CAD Board of Directors
Menard County Appraisal District
Appraisal Standards Review Follow-Up Report
What Remains to Be Done:
The Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division will continue to monitor Menard CAD’s progress toward meeting the state’s legal requirements. The following outlines steps Menard CAD still needs to take.
RECOMMENDATION 4:
Review, revise, adopt and place into use appraisal manuals that include complete procedures for appraising the various kinds of properties in the CAD.
The chief appraiser stated this recommendation is in progress. Agricultural policies, procedures and degree of intensity standards have been developed with the help of an agricultural committee.
The chief appraiser stated the remaining manuals will be completed by December 2010.