Wednesday's program was valuable and appraised high, with Palo Pinto Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Donna Kozlovsky, pictured center, giving the program. She brought with her PPAD Deputy Chief Appraiser Chuck Lyon, far right, and Exemption Clerk Amanda Salters, second from right.
Also pictured are Rotary Club President-Elect JJ Dugan, far left, and this week's program chair Charles Thompson.
Kozlovsky gave an overview of PPAD and how it goes about appraising the values of residential and commercial properties. Kozlovsky said they try to inspect every property at least once every three years, and the goal is to appraise properties to within 95 percent to 100 percent of market value.
Every county in Texas has an appraisal district, operating under the auspices of the Texas State Comptroller. Appraisal district employees are state employees, with their budgets provided by the local taxing entities they serve. Kozlovsky answers to the state comptroller and a local board of directors, appointed by the taxing entities.
She also works with an appraisal review board when a property owner disputes a valuation.
Once property values are set and certified, they go to the tax assessor/collector's office where tax rates are set based on those property valuation totals.
The appraisal district not only appraises a property's value based on structures and their conditions or if there have been improvements. Commercial values are also determined by inventories or if the property is income-producing. Then there are various exemptions like homestead, over 65, agriculture and livestock and more.
Property appraisals for the county are available online at http://iswdataclient.azurewebsites.net/webindex.aspx?dbkey=palopintocad&time=201711091604021.
Rotary meets every Wednesday at noon at Holiday Hills Country Club for lunch, networking, updates on club news and events and a program of interest. Please join us.