County appraisal chief warns understaffing, mapping gaps are costing Lampasas taxing units

Juan Salcedo, chief appraiser for the Lampasas County Appraisal District, told the Lampasas City Council on Monday that the appraisal district is behind on mapping and reappraisal work and is under-resourced for current construction and subdivision activity.

Salcedo said the district is operating “with 2 appraisers at this time” while handling roughly 2,000,532 parcels and contending with a surge in subdivisions and new homes. He told council members the district’s vendor has identified thousands of unmapped or unidentifiable parcels that have led to lost taxable value for local taxing units.

The appraisal chief said the district moved to new software in 2023 and has since found sharp increases in workload tied to data corrections and mapping. “We drew over 15,800 parcels in 1 year,” he said of the vendor’s mapping effort, and later noted the vendor had brought that total to 16,475 parcels. Salcedo said the vendor’s report shows about 3,557 parcels still cannot be identified by the district or its GIS vendor, and that 106 of those remain unresolved after recent work.

Why it matters: LCAD’s corrective work can add taxable value for the city and other taxing units; Salcedo…