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Personally, I've never heard such genuine pride in their operation as I heard from this individual. His happiness was infectious.
Things I learned:
- We have the only fully consolidated tax office in Texas. They collect the property taxes on behalf of 31 taxing entities.
- Instead of multiple bills from whichever entities authorized to tax a particular property, only one bill is sent listing each. No more running all over to pay these.
- 20 permanent and 4.5 temporary positions to run this department Their budget is $4.5 million, of which $3 million is for the appraisal district, the rest for the tax district.
- Mr. Sandoval and his staff did outreach, often presenting multiple times. Socorro was the last to join, but is the fastest growing and will eventually eclipse EPISD. The cost savings to Socorro alone was staggering, freeing that money for schools or other projects.
- The tax collector receives only .62 cents per parcel (or account), all the rest goes directly to the taxing entity.
- Tax collector doesn't determine the value of the house, he merely takes the tax rate and applies it to the assessed value. He says he has the easiest part since complaints about the tax rate go to the elected officials and the complaints about the assessed value goes to the assessors. He just calculates and collects.
- He definitely takes his job seriously, watching for businesses liquidating or closing to ensure the taxes are collected before they disappear. He goes with the sheriff to collect. They have a 97% collection rate and hit $803 million this year. He hopes to reach the billion mark before he retires.
- He clearly is dedicated to making this as easy on the taxpayer as possible and uses technology to do so. Mail, Walk-up all over town (City Tax Office, Wells Fargo branch banks, any County Tax office), drive through at Wells Fargo branches, and two ways via internet. Even Escrow accounts for those that want to pay monthly and not have to worry about coming up with it all at once.
- His explanation of the various terms helped. I always thought that increasing tax rates meant there would be more money, but in a sense, it is often just to keep the total collected at a particular level. So if homes go down, tax rates increase since the total amount collected needs to remain somewhat stable. If that increase/ is over a certain threshold, the voters can ask for a roll-back, and that means trimmed budgets.
- He also encouraged understanding the law and enjoining any taxing entity that doesn't follow the law to prevent dishonesty or unnecessarily high taxes.
- I also liked how he encouraged understanding the consequences of using the over-65 deferral of taxes since it often becomes a large amount due very quickly. He didn't discourage using it, just in being aware what the consequences could be.
