Refugio County Appraisal District
Appraisal Standards Review Follow-Up Report
September 29, 2009
The Honorable Ruben Lee, Board Chairman
Ms. Connie J. Koonce, Chief Appraiser
Refugio County Appraisal District
P.O. Box 156
Refugio, Texas 78377-0156
Dear Chairman Lee and Chief Appraiser Koonce:
This letter constitutes the Comptroller’s follow-up review of the Appraisal Standards Review (ASR) of the Refugio County Appraisal District (Refugio CAD) originally released in June 2008. We commend the cooperation of Refugio 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 three mandatory recommendations and two optional recommendations to help Refugio CAD achieve accurate local value in the annual Property Value Study and improve operations. The Comptroller acknowledges the work Refugio CAD has performed over the last year. The CAD has completed mandatory recommendation 2. This completed recommendation has assisted the CAD in improving its staffing, management and appraisal practices.
We also reviewed the implementation of the remaining mandatory recommendations. While work is in progress, Refugio CAD has not fully implemented recommendations 1 and 3. 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/refugio01/.
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, Austwell-Tivoli Independent School District;
Refugio Independent School District; and Woodsboro Independent School District
Refugio CAD Board of Directors
Refugio County Appraisal District
Appraisal Standards Review Follow-Up Report
What Remains to Be Done
The Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division (PTAD) will continue to monitor Refugio CAD’s progress toward meeting the state’s legal requirements. The following outlines steps Refugio CAD still needs to take.
RECOMMENDATION 1:
Update property records through the reappraisal process and update appraisal models to reflect changes indicated through ratio studies.
Refugio CAD provided a copy of its 2009 internal ratio study and target adjustments, but provided no documentation to indicate how the results of the ratio study or the adjustments were used to update the appraisal models. No documentation was provided to demonstrate how the property records were updated based on the reappraisal process.
To complete this recommendation, the CAD must provide procedures or other documentation indicating how the reappraisal process was used to update property records and how ratio study results were used to update appraisal models and submit copies to the Property Tax Assistance Division (PTAD) by the end of December 2009.
RECOMMENDATION 3:
Develop comprehensive written standards for contracting with outside appraisal firms as defined in the IAAO Standard on Contracting for Assessment Services.
Refugio CAD did not provide written standards for contracting with outside appraisal firms. The chief appraiser stated that this recommendation is in progress.
Hansford CAD has a process for managing and monitoring contracted services and provides continual oversight in compliance with IAAO standards. The chief appraiser is responsible for supervising all contracts. Contracts exceed the IAAO standard by explaining what services each vendor performs, what the CAD received and the expected delivery dates of services.
To complete this recommendation, the CAD should write comprehensive standards for contracting with outside appraisal firms and provide a copy to PTAD by the end of December 2009.