WASHINGTON CO. APPRAISAL DISTRICT BOARD APPROVES AERIAL IMAGERY CONTRACT
The Washington County Appraisal District Board of Directors accepted a contract with Eagleview for aerial imagery services every year at its meeting on Tuesday.
The appraisal district has contracted with Eagleview, formerly known as Pictometry, since 2009 for aerial imagery services every other year.
Chief Appraiser Dyann White said the aerials are used to confirm agricultural use, discover new construction outside of city limits and measure buildings when the appraisal district cannot physically get access.
The cost of the new contract is $61,446 annually.
Also on Tuesday, the board approved appointments to the agricultural advisory board, which advises the chief appraiser on the valuation and use of agricultural land.
Appointed members are Blake Eikenhorst, for a term of 2024-25; Gil Janner, 2024-25; Mark Klaus, 2024-25; Robert Lehmann, 2023-24; and Ray Thaler, 2023-24.
The board also reviewed the results of the Methods and Assistance Program (MAP) 2022 Report from the Texas Comptroller’s Office. The appraisal district received a letter from the state earlier this month saying it has completed all of the recommendations made in the MAP review released this past January.
I am curious how well this will go over with our citizens. How will citizens know the drone isn’t being operated by someone with ill intent? I could see the drones being shot down. Just my outlook. Are they not getting enough money from the property owners as high as the taxes are already?
I think i may build a bunker and live underground in order to keep the rights we fought Britain to gain. Property tax was a major reason w split from British rule and it was outlawed for over a century until smooth talking politicians pushed the teacher/police/fire angle. Govt is not supposed to operate as a business generating revenue to cover expenses, its clear in the Constitution, but Federal, State, and local govts continue to operate that way daily
” […] and measure buildings when the appraisal district cannot physically get access.” So by this statement, is it to be understood that the only people whose property is being/might be physically inspected by a human being are those who have open driveways and open entrances to their property? Does that mean that if I put up a game fence with a hot wire around the top and have a locked gate that they will have to take my word for what’s inside and base it from an aerial view? It would seem to me that a home might vary a great deal in value not only by the size, but what it is constructed of and what’s inside. A 2000 square foot concrete block constructed house with a slightly sloped flat roof and unfinished concrete floors and no room partitions might be far less in value than a 1200 square foot house built of imported Italian fieldstones and finished out with walnut burl veneer paneling in all of the rooms and baths with gold-plated fixtures. According to the statement, if they can’t have access to it they’re only going to measure it from an aerial image and base the appraised value on the estimated square footage? I thought the Washington County Appraisal District pretty much had free run to enter anyone’s outside property in order to do an assessment so that accurate values and fair taxation could be applied. Would a ‘No Trespassing’ sign be enough to turn them away?
I feel ya, the entire appraisal process is a joke. Ive gone back n forth over it many times. I see every year, wealthy people with properties in the millions in value paying less in taxes than i was having a small older home on a tiny lot. They are taxing the poor right out of their property