City officials in Corsicana rejected the Navarro County appraisal district’s proposed 2024 budget, saying it rewards poor performance, and they’re inviting other local taxing entities to join them.
The Navarro Central Appraisal District’s proposed 2024 budget is $2,171,118—a 15 percent increase over last year.
“Not only does this budget increase the size of government and their ability to collect citizens’ data, it uses our tax dollars to reward poor government performance,” said Corsicana City Councilmember Chris Woolsey following Monday’s vote. “This year’s Appraisal District budget spends carelessly and recklessly, and they want to stick you with the bill.”
Corsicana’s proposed share of the 2024 budget, which is based on the city’s total property tax levy for the year, is $226,153.
The conservative Texas town is the third-largest contributor to the appraisal district budget, after Corsicana ISD and Navarro County.
“Corsicana has made it a priority to wisely steward tax dollars, as Corsicana was the only taxing entity in the county last year to cut taxes,” Woolsey said.
The city’s 2023 budget was based on a property tax rate that collected less revenue from local taxpayers, delivering a true tax cut.
Woolsey, a commercial real estate advisor and property tax consultant, said he has spoken to hundreds of Navarro County residents over the past few months whose property appraisals are inconsistent with prevailing market conditions.
“Our Appraisal District has completely rejected actual market conditions,” he said, calling NCAD’s performance over the past two years “unacceptable.”
The new normal for our appraisal district in Navarro County is to ignore prevailing market conditions and instead to lazily rely on big data collection platforms, tethering taxpayers to thoughtless computer programs that can’t recognize the difference between hundred-year-old houses and new-build lake mansions. The Appraisal District wants to double down on this new normal with their 2024 budget.
A majority of the taxing entities served by the district must approve the budget. Last year, taxing entities in Denton County rejected their appraisal district’s budget.
“Every citizen in Navarro County needs to ask their city councils, school boards, and county elected officials to join the City of Corsicana in rejecting the Navarro Central Appraisal District’s budget and hold them accountable for their poor performance,” Woolsey added.
A public hearing on the budget will be held on July 19 at 10:00 a.m., at the Navarro Central Appraisal District office in Corsicana.
