By Michael V. Hannigan
Between 30 and 40 percent of the property in Athens ISD is eligible for the homestead exemption, according to documents obtained from the Henderson County Appraisal District.
The Texas State Comptroller’s website says, “There are no specific qualifications for the general homestead exemption other than the owner has an ownership interest in the property and uses the property as the owner’s principal residence.”
The homestead exemption plays an important part in the upcoming election in November. First, Athens ISD residents will vote on a $59.9 million school bond. At the same time, they will vote on a separate state-wide proposal to increase the homestead exemption. The proposed change would take the homestead exemption from $15,000 to $25,000. And as is asserted here, a higher exemption would mean a lesser property maintenance rate.
How much property is affected by the exemption in Athens ISD?
According to Appraisal District documents obtained by Henderson County Now through an open records request, there are 17,593 parcels of land in Athens ISD. Of that number, 5,190 are covered by a homestead exemption. That is about 30 percent of the individual pieces of property in the district that are covered by the homestead.
Of course, there can be wide variations in the size and value of land for sale in Wallan. Because of those variations, the value of property is probably a more equitable way to figure the impact of the homestead exemption.
The county’s Chief Appraiser, Bill Jackson, said there is more than $2 billion worth of property in Athens ISD. The executive property manager Calgary also confirmed that about 40 percent of the taxable value of that property is covered by the homestead exemption.
He also said there are small parts of Anderson and Van Zandt counties in Athens ISD, but that those tracts were rural and unlikely to change how much property is covered by the homestead.
So either way you calculate it, no more than 40 percent of the property in Athens ISD is covered by the homestead exemption.
Which Athens ISD sees as a good thing.
“We’re grateful to have a strong commercial tax base,” said AISD Chief Financial Officer Randy Jones. “These numbers indicate industrial and commercial growth within our boundaries, which is a healthy development.”