FORNEY, Texas — The owner of a picturesque cotton gin in the Historic Downtown District of Forney is facing a property tax nightmare as the town's mayor wages a legal war against the Kaufman County Appraisal District.
Over the past two weeks, the appraisal district has been facing a lot of heat from residents.
After sending out appraisals for properties, the district confirmed to WFAA that an application error was made while calculating certain property values.
That error devalued predominantly rural properties along commercial corridors.
The deputy chief appraiser said that a few thousand properties had market values switched with agricultural values on their appraisals.
Mayor Rick Wilson, of Forney, owns one of those properties.
He told WFAA that a 1.4-acre tract of land he owns off of Highway 80 was worth $610,710 last year, and it was appraised this year at $28,860.
On Thursday, the district said that it's working to get impacted property owners their correct values.
It also said that errors were made in calculating values in the Vintage Meadows and Devonshire subdivisions and that adjustments have been completed.
Last week, a number of residents in Kaufman County told WFAA that they questioned if their properties were being valued fairly if the district is making mistakes like this.
Some homeowners, like many in Texas, are seeing their property values shoot through the roof.
It prompted Wilson to file a class action lawsuit against the appraisal district on Wednesday.
In the suit, Wilson claims that 2019 property valuations in Kaufman County increased by $2 billion.
It goes on to say that the district's chief appraiser is not valuing properties in an equal and uniform manner, and is violating Texas constitutional and statutory mandates.
Furthermore, it requests a judge to set aside all of the property valuations done in Kaufman County in 2019 and for the appraisal district to re-do them.
"We're looking at citizens losing their homes, and losing their businesses," Wilson said. "It's overwhelming for them."
An attorney for the appraisal district didn't comment on the suit.
If the suit has legs in court, and the appraisal district is forced to re-do property values, it could take months.
That would mean cities, counties, school districts, and other entities that rely on property taxes may see a delay in forming their budgets for the next fiscal year.
But Wilson isn't worried about that.
"What about the citizen who has to set their budget for the next year? How are they going to pay their bills?" Wilson said.
'IT WAS SOMETHING I WAS GOING TO LEAVE TO MY CHILDREN'
At 78, Sandy Blair is looking a tough decision in the eye.
Since 1983, Blair has owned the old Murray Cotton Gin in Historic Downtown Forney.
She turned it into the Cotton Gin Mall and sells antiques out of the main building. Blair also lets other businesses rent smaller buildings on the property.
"I have a lot of things in here that you won't see when you go to other antique places," Blair said. "I specialize in rare and unusual things."
The old cotton gin is well known in town. People take pictures there, markets are held on the property, and it's even seen a few film crews in its day.
"It pretty much is the heart of downtown," Blair said.
But Blair's recent property appraisal has her rethinking the future of her old cotton gin.
Since 2011, the value of the property has been appraised at $146,330.
This year it more than tripled to $504,070. Meaning, her property taxes will see a hefty increase.
"It was quite a surprise. My reaction at first was I'll have to sell this place," Blair said. "If I keep it, what am I going to do if it goes up three times again? I'm 78, retired, and on a limited income."
"It was something I was going to leave my children."
A special called meeting for the board of directors representing the Kaufman County Appraisal District was supposed to be held Thursday night but was canceled without explanation.
One of two agenda items up for discussion was the increase in 2019 market values.
There wasn't planned public comment, but if Blair would have attended she said she would have asked for fairness.
"This is just not reasonable," Blair said.
The Kaufman County Appraisal District was retooled earlier this year to make up for past performance issues.
WFAA has reported on some of those issues. A 2017 story highlighted how a religious compound in the county with 80 single-family homes dodged property taxes for years through religious exemptions.
Even though a number of findings questioned if the compound was even eligible for those exemptions.
A new chief and deputy appraiser were hired in January and administratively, a lot of changes have been made.
The deputy chief appraiser said that the district's main issues in the past were consistency.
Market areas weren't delineated properly, which made it hard to do mass appraisals. Cost schedules hadn't been updated since the late 2000s and the district failed to thoroughly collect and vet sales data.