Property and mineral wealth in Denton County rose by more than 10 percent this year to $52.6 billion, according to the certified tax roll released by the Denton Central Appraisal District.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” County Judge Mary Horn said. “We are still growing.”

DRC/Gary Payne

A gas well is shown Wednesday behind a house on Dyer Road in Bartonville. Property and mineral wealth in Denton County rose by more than 10 percent this year, according to the certified tax roll released by the Denton Central Appraisal District.

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The certified tax roll increase was down from the 12 percent preliminary countywide projection released in May, a change that appraisal officials expected after the protest period.

The tax roll includes nearly $2.4 billion that is still under review.

In the city of Denton, final certified tax rolls rose 6.1 percent over last year. Denton’s leaders had anticipated a higher increase and budgeted accordingly, said Mayor Mark Burroughs.

“We were above the 7 percent estimate up until the last week,” he said. “It looked like a pretty good number.”

But the final tax roll could mean the city collects $1 million less in property taxes than first expected, Burroughs said.

“We have to go with a more conservative budget,” he said.

The Denton school district, which recently passed a budget with a deficit of $2.2 million, also expects to receive less revenue than anticipated from property taxes.

Debbie Monschke, the district’s executive director of budget and finance, said the shortfall amounts to about $250,000 to $300,000 less revenue for the district than she projected.

The district will just have to make adjustments as the year goes by or take from the reserve fund, she said.

According to Superintendent Ray Braswell, the increase in people protesting their preliminary property valuations played a part in the decrease.

“I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle,” Braswell said.

He said he was told by the appraisal district that an average of about 6 percent of residents protest their valuations each year, but protests rose to 10 percent this year.

While his office does not have concrete numbers on the percentages of the protests, Rudy Durham, chief appraiser for the Denton County Appraisal District, agreed with Braswell’s statement.

“The numbers are down from the preliminary results because of protests,” he said.

Durham attributes the rise in protests to the state of the general economy.

“The biggest complaint we heard from folks was that the real estate market has collapsed,” he said. “And ‘How come the numbers have not gone down here while California, Florida and Nevada have gone down 30 percent?’”

Durham said those complaints were even coming from homeowners who had purchased their homes within the last six months.

“All we do is value the property as of Jan. 1. If they can show the value has gone down, we can lower it. Otherwise, we have to keep the value we have.”

In Northlake, valuations increased 58.5 percent since last year. Northlake Town Administrator Drew Corn asked the appraisal district for more detailed mineral accounts after the city’s values jumped $21 million this year, with nearly 200 more mineral accounts.

The volatile nature of mineral valuations from year to year is hard to plan for, Corn said.

“All we can really do is compare from year to year,” he said.

Other cities, such as Ponder and Dish, have seen mineral valuations rise one year, only to fall the next. Valuations in Dish dipped last year, but are up 39.1 percent this year.

Corn attended a training session at the appraisal district this year to learn more about the process of mineral valuations. Just as homes are valued for what they would bring on the marketplace, gas wells are essentially evaluated for anticipated production, which inevitably decreases over time.

“There’s so many variables in treating it that we’re being very careful how we use the added revenue,” Corn said. “We try to focus the windfall for one-time costs.”

Countywide mineral valuations rose about 10 percent to $2.01 billion.

The county will generate enough revenue to handle its financial needs and limit changes to the tax rate, Horn said.

“The primary objective for myself and the rest of the court is to have a frugal budget and the tax rate the same or less than last year,” she said. “And I think we’ll be able to achieve that.”

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

Bj LEWIS can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is blewis@dentonrc.com .

Here are the certified tax rolls for Denton County for 2007 and 2008 and the percent of change. The rolls include about $2 billion worth of property countywide that the Denton Central Appraisal District board is still reviewing.

Cities

School districts

SOURCE: Denton Central Appraisal District