FORNEY (WBAP/KLIF)- Forney Mayor Rick Wilson filed a lawsuit against the Kaufman County Chief Appraiser for making a calculation error and raising property taxes tens of thousands of dollars.
“Individual’s rights were not taken into consideration…there was over $2 billion worth of increase in evaluations in a county that only has a little over $10 billion,” Wilson said.
Wilson said property owners, are facing possible loss of their businesses and homes because of the upsurge. He highlights one Downtown Forney business owner:
“Her property went from $150,000 to $550,000 and she has to figure out from now until January 1st how she’s going to pay that property tax it’s going to be more that what she collects in rent for those businesses,” Wilson said.
He said Chief Appraiser Sarah Curtis said the jump in prices were due to a calculation error and is making it difficult for people to fix it. “They are owning up to their mistakes but they are requesting that individual property owners to come in to adjust it when I’m simply saying if you know the mistake you need to reset or redo the evaluations,” Wilson said. “There’s a lot of individuals that can’t make it or don’t have the time or money to go in and wait in line and explain their circumstance when it’s not their fault,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he sat down and talked to Curtis and she planned to have a meeting Thursday night to find a plan. He said she cancelled it and rescheduled it for May 16th, the day after everyones deadline to file for protest. “They cancelled it before I filed the suit, basically forcing me to file a suit against them,” Wilson said.
He encourages everyone to file a protest form for the tax evaluation by May 15th.
