State appraisal recalculation cuts Lubbockno-new-revenue benchmark on paper, shrinking budget room

City Manager Jared Atkinson told the Lubbock City Council at a work session that a retroactive recalculation of property values by the Lubbock Central Appraisal District (LCAD) reduced the city's baseline taxable value by about $205 million and lowered the maintenance-and-operations levy on paper from roughly $83 million to about $81.1 million.

Atkinson said the adjustment stems from a change in how appraisal districts must apply exemptions retroactively and that the result is largely procedural: "This is largely a paper issue," he told the council, adding that "83 is real. You really did levy it and collect it." He said the change reduces the city's no-new-revenue (NNR) benchmark and therefore narrows the margin the council can use for any tax-rate increase before triggering voter-approval requirements.

Why it matters: The recalculation changes the denominator for the NNR comparison the council uses when deciding tax rates. Atkinson said the recalculation is applied backward to prior year values, which reduces the baseline levy against which the city measures…