AUSTIN (KXAN) – A battle veteran Keith Romel has been fighting for about a year is finally getting the attention he’d hoped.
“It’s brought awareness to the issue,” said the east Austin Resident, referring to a recent KXAN investigation highlighting his struggle to get the property tax exemption he’s entitled to as a 100% disabled veteran.
When Romel sold his east Austin home last year and bought another one, he was upset to find he would not be able to use his 100% disabled veteran property tax exemption immediately.
The Travis Central Appraisal District, or TCAD, ruled the exemption could not be applied to his new condo for the time he owned it in 2023, from mid-May through December.
“To come up with, you know, $6,500 that I wasn’t expecting to have to pay when I bought the house was a little hard,” Romel told KXAN Investigator Mike Rush in early May.
As a TCAD spokesperson explained to KXAN, property value is appraised based on the state of a property on January first of each year. Regarding Romel’s new condo, in January 2023, a developer owned the land and was in the process of splitting it into two condos, one of which became Romel’s.
TCAD determined since Romel’s condo and new address did not exist at the start of the year, he couldn’t use his exemption on his new home for the remainder of that year, although the exemption is in effect for 2024 and beyond.
“I don’t think it’s right,” Romel said.
Neither does Texas State Rep. Lulu Flores, who represents Romel’s district.
“The exemption should go with him and into whatever property he goes into,” the Austin Democrat said.
Romel believes KXAN’s investigation helped elevate conversations he’d been having for a few months with Flores’ office.
Flores tells KXAN she’s committed to coming up with a solution.
“It’ shouldn’t be rocket science,” the lawmaker said. “Maybe we need to clarify in the legislation that the exemption travels with the individual.” She added, “That whatever exemption they have and are entitled to applies to that property regardless of whether it was on the rolls or not.”
Romel’s predicament also has the attention of another state lawmaker.
In our original report, KXAN spoke with longtime Austin property tax attorney Lorri Michel, who disagreed with TCAD’s interpretation of the tax code that denied Romel the exemption on his new property for 2023.
“I’m thinking he should have had it,” Michel said at the time.
After KXAN brought the issue to Michel’s attention, she reached out to State Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s office to try to change the law.
“Quite frankly, if it wasn’t for y’all’s investigative report, we wouldn’t have heard about it,” Sen. Bettencourt told Rush.
Bettencourt, R-Houston, owns a tax consulting company, previously served as the Harris County Tax Assessor for 10 years, and in 2019 authored major statewide property tax reform legislation.
The senator said his office is looking into Romel’s situation and the possibility of tweaking the law.
“At the end of the day, we may have to clarify this to make it crystal clear,” Bettencourt said.
If the lawmakers determine the law does need clarification, they would introduce measures next year, when the legislature meets next.
While he won’t get the money back he spent on property taxes in 2023, Romel supports a change.
“It will help somebody else from being caught in this situation in the future,” he said.
Exemption interpretations may differ
A spokesperson with the Texas Comptroller’s Office tells KXAN local appraisal districts in Texas decide whether to approve or deny exemptions and may have different interpretations of how exemptions are applied.
We reached out to neighboring appraisal districts to see how they would handle this situation.
In a statement, the Hays Central Appraisal District’s chief appraiser, Laura Raven, wrote:
“Hays CAD works diligently within the framework of the Property Tax Code to ensure that anyone who applies and qualifies for an exemption receives it. If someone applies for an exemption on a property that didn’t exist on January 1 there would not be an account to apply an exemption to.”
Meanwhile, Williamson Central District Chief Appraiser, Alvin Lankford, told KXAN’s Mike Rush a veteran in a similar situation there would also not be able to have a 100% disabled veteran property tax exemption applied. The reason would not be just because the property didn’t exist at the start of the year, but because the veteran moved during the year.
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