Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Henderson County Judge Wade McKinney explains to Cedar Creek Republican Club members May 25 how the state influences property appraisals for tax purposes through School Property Value Studies undertaken by law by the Texas Comptroller.

CEDAR CREEK LAKE–Henderson County Judge Wade McKinney placed the blame for higher property valuations on the State of Texas, which he told Cedar Creek Republican Club members May 25 meant the state legislature could fund public schools at a lower level and keep more money in Austin.
McKinney explained that the Texas Comptroller undertakes a School District Property Value Study in each public school district at least every two years. The studies, which are required by state law, help ensure equitable distribution of state funding for public education, according to the comptroller’s website.
Appraisal districts’ valuation numbers must be within 5% of what the state comes up with, or the state says “we are cutting our part to your schools,” McKinney explained further. “It’s a rigged game, and it’s rigged out of Austin,” McKinney stated.
While appraisal districts are state agencies, “these are local people trying to do good work,” McKinney said of appraisal district board members. Henderson County Appraisal District (HCAD) is responsible for appraising all real and business personal property within the county, according to the HCAD website.
The county judge said schools had once been funded closer to 50/50 between state money and money generated locally by property taxes, but that in recent years the local share has “increased dramatically.”
McKinney criticized further the centralization of power in Austin, which he said means the state is taking away local control. “Our (Texas) constitution is not written for what’s being done,” he said.
For instance, the judge continued, the state is trying to clamp down on local governments being able to lobby state officials, even as the state spent $3 million lobbying the federal government.
“They talk out of both sides of their mouth,” McKinney said. “They don’t want local government to come down and talk to them.”
Another example of local power seized by the state, according to McKinney, is the regulation of rural subdivisions. “It gets harder and harder for us to govern as the state tightens and tightens and tightens,” the county judge told the club. “Something has got to give,” McKinney later told club members.
As for tax rates, McKinney informed the club that Henderson County’s current property tax rate is 34 cents per $100 taxable value, compared to 41 cents in Kaufman County, 54 cents in Van Zandt County and 57 cents in Anderson County.