Preliminary tax rolls showed a nearly 8 percent increase in property and mineral wealth in Denton County this year over 2007, but the number is expected to substantially drop after the protest period, officials said.

The countywide preliminary values increased to more than $56 billion, from $52 billion in 2007, according to tax rolls. However, protests should cause the final total to drop before July 18, when the values are certified.

“I am sure that they will go down,” said Joe Rogers, the Denton County Appraisal District’s chief appraiser. “I know we haven’t had that kind of growth.”

Many properties in the county retained nearly the same value as last year with a few seeing an increase or decrease between 5 percent to 10 percent, Rogers said. Both types of change were scattered across the county, Rogers said.

The stagnant values had been in the county’s forecast for a while, he said.

“We were expecting this to happen,” Rogers said. “We have been going in this direction for some time.”

Rogers said the trend is primarily the result of a slumping economy and housing market and rises in fuel and grocery prices.

Fortunately, Rogers said, the county saw more than $2 billion worth of growth that shows growth is slowing but isn’t in a dead stop as it is in other areas. Much like the increases and decreases in values, the new growth was dispersed across the county.

The trend, however, isn’t isolated to Denton County, Rogers said.

Tarrant, Dallas and Collin counties ex­perienced the same pattern, with Collin closest resembling Denton County.

The preliminary results give taxing entities, such as county, city and school districts, their first indicator of possible revenues, but the certified values always decrease. Because of that, County Judge Mary Horn gives them little stock.

“I’ve deliberately not looked at them,” Horn said. “The only numbers that are meaningful are the ones in July. Anyone who gets excited and starts planning the budget is foolish.”

In Denton, city officials said the pre­liminary figures, which showed a 2.1 percent increase over last year’s figures, were a signal that property tax growth might fall short of the city’s expectations, Finance Director Bryan Langley said.

Budget planners had forecast a 9 percent increase in certified values from 2007 to 2008. Based on lower-than-expected preliminary numbers, they’re now anticipating a 7 percent rise in certified values, Langley said.

“It’s definitely lower revenue than what we were expecting,” he said.

Langley said he would present a revised financial forecast to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee on June 3.

In Argyle, town officials took a more conservative approach by forecasting the 2008-09 budget by using last year’s certified values, rather than this year’s 12.4 percent preliminary increase in values.

Argyle has some commercial and minerals in its property, but most of the $400 million on the preliminary tax roll is high-end homes and high-value acreage.

“We may see a much different picture next year,” Town Admin­istrator Lyle Dresher said, adding that he was far more concerned about foreclosures and their effect on the market next year.

For Roanoke and Dish, the preliminary numbers showed a slump in revenues as both re­corded double-digit losses. Dish officials, who saw a 15.2 percent dip, believe the numbers will re­bound in the coming years as high-end homes come onto the tax roll, Mayor Calvin Tillman said.

According to this year’s and last year’s preliminary numbers, only the Ponder and Pilot Point school districts saw decreases in property values.

With about 65 percent of the school district’s property value funds coming from mineral rights, Ponder Superintendent Bruce Yeager said he does not expect a loss.

He said the preliminary numbers do not reflect this year’s adjusted mineral values, and the tax office will not have that until the final numbers are released in July.

“I don’t anticipate that we will have a decrease in value,” Yeager said.

Staff writers Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, Lowell Brown  and Amy Dodd Thompson contributed to this report. 

DAN McGRAW can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail is dmcgraw@dentonrc.com

The Denton Central Appraisal District recently released its 2008 preliminary property appraisals. Here is a breakdown for the county’s northernmost cities, towns and school districts and countywide estimates. The percent change reflects the change between the 2007 preliminary and the 2008 preliminary amounts. The 2008 final values are due out in July.

School districts