Post edited 2:56 pm – January 22, 2011 by maxxbuster

I have a recent good example of how MCAD values movers and shakers mansions at less than 50% of their market value while valuing the little guys properties at close to 100% of market value.

Last week the Villager newspaper happened to feature the most expensive home in all of southeast Texas on the front page.

The property consists of two "lots" (totalling just over 4 acres of land) with a 30,000+ square foot home, a Pool house with a full kitchen, four other "full" kitchens, three elevators, a huge heated pool with two heated spas, a movie theater, two one bedroom apartments, 6 garages…..you get the picture.

This homestead is "listed" for sale at $19 million. 

See the listing here: http://search.har.com/engine/d…..M=93004455

Now we all know that Realtor's (being the experts that they are) normally and regularly "list" properties a little over what they expect it to actually "sell" for.  If you ask most realtors they will tell you that somewhere around 5 – 8 percent can be knocked off the asking price.  And, as we all know the market is "down" right now (though the local market around MoCo is doing quite well actually) so let's just figure that the realtor listing this mega mansion has it listed a whole 15% over what she actually thinks it should sell for…..If someone paid 15% less than the property is listed at they would pay $16.15 million.

That would make the actual "market value" of the property $16.15 million.

Now, let's take a look at what MCAD has this homestead "valued" at (which is the amount the owners are taxed on).

Here is MCAD's records.  The expert appraisers at MCAD have the total "market value" of this homestead at $6,190,000!  A full 2/3 BELOW what it is listed at and so far below the actual MARKET VALUE as to be "obscene"! 

Don't all the property owners in this county wish their property were valued at only 1/3 of the market instead of 97% or 98% ?

This is only ONE of hundreds of similar examples that I will gladly show here as time permits.

Tellin it to ya straight……….

maxxbuster

"The BANE of Our Society….Ill-Gotten Gain and Arrogant Public Servants"

A couple of days ago I brought to light the statistics on a 30,000 square foot mansion in The Woodlands and pointed out that MCAD has it valued at approximately 33% of its' "market" value (unlike the 97% to 100% most of our properties are assessed at).

Now, I want to share some documents that were given to me last year during the election that reflect a taxpayer who was fed up (in 2006) with the 30, 40 and 50 percent increases in his, his family's and his friends property values over several years.

These documents make clear that certain Montgomery County property owners who just happen to be politically "connected" had their upper middle class properties remain the same value year after year or only raised a very small "token" percentage. The years covered in these docs is 1998 through 2006 (only). I would point out that those are the years when things were "booming" here in MoCo and most of our properties values were rising like a rocket!

I'm sure that each individual represented in these documents has some kind of explanation for "their" property value being left alone or only raised an insignificant amount over the several years represented herein. 

BUT, we all know that when taken all together they show a "pattern" of special treatment by the appraisal district (as run by Chief Appraiser, Mark Castleschouldt).  Can anyone say "Good Old Boys"?

Link to MCAD 1998 thru 2006 Documents

After looking at the "historical" information about the assessed values on all these properties in these particular documents you can understand a little bit of the reasoning behind Castleschouldt having the "include inactive" search option removed from the public website.  With the ability to look back over just a small amount of historical info one can get a good picture of any "pattern" of "favoritism" in the carrying out of the Property Tax Code rules and regs by MCAD staff.

This ability is precisely what I suspect Castleschouldt and the Board of Directors of MCAD appears to have decided to interfere with when the "include inactive" search option was removed in 2009.

Tellin it to ya straight………

maxxbuster

"The BANE of Our Society…Ill-Gotten Gain and Arrogant Public Servants"

Post edited 2:57 pm – January 30, 2011 by maxxbuster

I  would ask our Tax Assessor/Collector, J.R. Moore, Jr. and the Chief "Fixer", Mark A. Castleschouldt what they are running from or hiding when they act (in concert) to remove the public's ability to freely access the appraisal district's (and the Tax Office)computer records that are, by law, PUBLIC RECORDS?

Case in point……

According to public records I have seen, I am of the opinion that Moore has colluded with someone at MCAD (I, of course, suspect Castleschouldt) to get his homestead property account "scrubbed" from the MCAD website and his personal identifying information (name and address) "concealed" on his own Tax Office website.

After I post the documentation that shows that Moore's homestead property account record has been "hidden", I will address what I think the motive for hiding this public nformation is.

I think reader's (including law enforcement) should be aware of this section of the Public Information Act here that "criminalizes" the "destruction, alteration or concealment of public records".
 
First, let's take a look (here) at what MCAD has to say on their own website about having "public" property account data removed from public view. Read the third Question and Answer. (So Castleschouldt can't claim lack of knowledge of the law).

MCAD states, "we cannot "selectively" remove or withhold this information" (as it is public record). It's obvious this statement is "planted" on the website for us "peons" to follow.

I guess whoever wrote and posted that is lying to the public, heh?  I guess if you have friends in high places you CAN have your own data "selectively" scrubbed and concealed from the public record.  Especially data that exposes prior wrongdoing!

Here are J.R. Moore's homestead records WITH his identifying information prior to that record being concealed and removed.

Here is the "current" proof that Moore's homestead account NO longer comes up on MCAD's website at all.

Whether you search by his name,

his street,

or his account number.

Here is what shows up on (Moore's) Tax Office website when a search is done there by the 13 digit Account Number (which the public can no longer even learn over on MCAD's site). Someone at the Tax Office has removed Moore's name AND address and just placed a "CONFIDENTIAL" tag across those fields on the computer screen.

If you search by NAME on the Tax Office website this is what you get.

And remember, over on MCAD's website even if you search by the street name or J.R. Moore's name the account has been completely removed from coming up at all on their website. That way the public cannot get the Account number needed to look up the actual tax records over on the Tax Office website. 

These public servants who run these two offices in this county need to be prosecuted and lose their jobs.

I have no compunction about stating that I believe the reason that Moore would have his crony, The Fixer, Castleschouldt, do him this "favor" of covering up his homestead records is because Moore's homestead appears to have gotten very "favorable" and unequal treatment as to its' assessed values over several years past and Moore knows that several activists in this county are onto his property's special treatment by MCAD.

(I will post the documents showing his past assessed values in coming days)

MAKE NOTE THAT MCAD HAS ITS' WEBSITE COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN TODAY (AND PROBABLY YESTERDAY TOO).  Do we think that is because of what I stated at the beginning of my "rant" in this forum on Thursday of this week……maybe Castleschouldt is trying to clean up the website before even more of his outrageous acts come to light.

Tellin it to ya straight…….

maxxbuster

Yes, scannernut, some media attention would be good and so would the attention of MoCo DA's Public Integrity unit headed by Tyler Dunman at 936-539-7800. 

If Dunman (or someone else in his office) were to be made aware of the info that has already come to light here AND were to continue watching what other facts will unfold here those facts could be followed through with the power of the subpeona.  

The subject of appraisal district operations should be brought before a Grand Jury. 

There are evidentally so many "historical" (preserved) appraisal district documents that show the "pattern" of conspiracy, collusion and cover-up to such a degree that it surely cannot all be "coincidental" or even simply "human errors" when the pattern is ALWAYS on the side of certain rich and powerful property owners paying LOWER taxes and never HIGHER taxes! 

After all, IF this documented pattern is the result of human errors then logically there would be documents that show (historically speaking) a "pattern" (of randomness) in the property accounts of similarly-situated wealthy, powerful people leading to HIGHER taxes (instead of ALWAYS lower taxes) …..WHICH THERE IS NOT (according to the massive documents I have been privy to from MCAD).  Nope, I have NEVER seen one MCAD document that has an error on it that lead to HIGHER taxes being assessed on a rich person……like a pool being assessed where there is NO pool or a outdoor kitchen being assessed where there is NO outdoor kitchen, etc.

Just the opposite…….there are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of property accounts of high valued properties that are MISSING valuation for pools, boat docks, pool houses, outdoor kitchens, guest houses and all manner of improvements that should be assessed.  Why?  Because appraiser's at MCAD are NOT doing inspections as alleged in individual account records??  More on this later…..let's get the media and law enforcement's attention over here, readers!

Tellin it to ya straight……

maxx

Today let's take a look at the intentional dumbing down of MCAD's "new" (in '05-'06) allegedly upgraded data system (purchased with taxpayer dollars).

I say this because the "old" software MCAD used actually allowed more search options resulting in more information publicly available on their website than they currently "allow" with this newer "upgraded" system!

Now why would that be??  Maybe because local activists have been probing MCAD records at a swift pace and the chief "fixer" (Castleschouldt) knows there is much in the property records that could expose all the "favors" done for the movers and shakers in this county that none of them want made public?

One way that Chief "fixer" Castleschouldt has devised to prevent the public from being able to accurately "follow" the ownership and value history of undeveloped land and certain pertinent commercial and residential properties in this county is to "manipulate" the software on MCAD's website so that free access to "advanced searching" by the public has been intentionally "blocked".

To prove that is exactly what has been done let's first look at a representative sample of other appraisal district's websites that do allow "advanced" searching of their property records. 

First, here is MCAD's "Searches" Options as available today (and most every other day) on their website.

Then, here are a representative sample of other District's websites that use the very same software that MCAD now uses.  NOTE that these samples have an "Advanced Search" Option available under "Searches" (that MCAD has "REMOVED" from it's website).

And, here are a few examples of other Districts in this state with DIFFERENT software that also allow website searches that are far advanced from the intentionally "limited" search on MCAD's website.

Now, here's the most interesting thing about Castleschouldt's intentional blocking of that "Advanced Search" Option…….Examples (here) showing that from time to time over the past  five years someone at MCAD made the "mistake" of ALLOWING the "Advance Search" to be visible on the website and so their ENTIRE records base was indeed vulnerable (for only a few days at most) to easily being searched, accessed and sorted in ways that the appraisal district normally restricts!

And you can be sure that Castleschouldt NEVER expected anyone to actually make printouts of each time this "mistake" took place on the website and surely also NEVER thought copies of those dated printouts would end up published for all to see!

The final documents accessible in the prior paragraph PROVES that the MCAD software has the CAPABILITY of allowing the public to access district records in all sorts of advanced ways that would not only help property owners prepare for their yearly "protests" of value but also to aid in rooting out the insidious collusion, cover-up and "manipulation of records" that always results in "unjust enrichment" (of the Good ol Boys) and that has been going on at MCAD for far too long!

Heads should roll!

Get angry…..Get motivated…..Call and demand prosecution and change at MCAD. Demand that MCAD give access to ALL the (legally allowed) records back to the public on their website.  Demand that MCAD STOP shutting down their website every night also!

The property owners in this county have paid for this software and the website and deserve the FULL ability to search the public records. 

Tellin it to ya straight…….

maxxbuster