PRESIDIO COUNTY — The Presidio County Appraisal District (PCAD) is still in the process of completing a homestead tax exemption audit started in December 2024. The audit, which is required by the state to be completed every five years, is meant to ensure homeowners are not claiming school property tax exemptions on multiple properties, only their primary residence.
So far, the PCAD has scrutinized properties with owner last names A-M, with plans to tackle last names N-Z starting in December 2025. Chief Appraiser Cynthia Ramirez said there are a total of 2,000 homestead tax exemptions throughout the county, and the first round of audits focused on 1,000 accounts.
Homestead tax exemptions — currently $100,000 and $110,000 for seniors — are portions of a property’s value that cannot be taxed by the local school district. This legislative session lawmakers approved yet another increase in homestead exemptions, up to a $140,000 baseline exemption and $200,000 for the elderly and those with disabilities. The measure is pending the governor’s signature and voter approval in November.
The PCAD worked with company True Roll on the most recent audit, whose software flags property owners who may be deceased, may have multiple homestead exemptions or other discrepancies. “We were working off of their software, and that’s when we were coming to find out that there’s owners with multiple homesteads in other counties,” Ramirez said.
Properties in question were sent initial letters from the PCAD in December 2024 notifying them of the potential removal of their homestead exemption and requesting a copy of the home owner’s current driver’s license, to ensure addresses listed match their homesteaded address.
The PCAD then followed up with letters sent via certified mail — which are costly to send out. Seniors were given 60 and 30 day letters, and asked whether they still live at home or if they have moved into a nursing home or assisted living facility. Those who did not respond to the PCAD’s requests for updated information by April 2025 had their homestead exemptions removed.
“We had a really good response, except … we had about maybe 200 to 300 that did not get returned,” Ramirez said. “So there was about 66 here in Marfa ISD, and then the rest are down south.”
The majority of residences in question ended up losing their homestead tax exemptions, Ramirez said, leading to some upset individuals. “We’ve already started our protests for this year, so we do have some individuals that are filing a protest because of that,” Ramirez said. “But I’m trying to settle those informally. They just need to submit their identification and the exemption will be put back on.”
Ramirez said there were cases where letters were repeatedly sent back from the post office, and, particularly in Presidio, cases of vacant homes and deceased homeowners. Determining whether someone is truly deceased can be difficult, she said, if an obituary from the local paper or funeral home cannot be located — potentially due to an individual being buried in Mexico and the PCAD never being notified of their death.
If a homeowner is found to have two homestead exemptions — in different Texas counties or one in Texas and one in another state — their second one will be removed and they will be required to pay back taxes on the property that shouldn’t have been receiving the homestead exemption. The PCAD also worked to correct instances where a married couple was claiming separate homestead exemptions on two properties, something that is not permitted.
“If we came to find out that they had a homestead in another county for the past four years and we weren’t aware of it, we’d remove it from here, and we would mail them out a new tax bill showing the homestead being removed for the previous four years,” Ramirez said.
The upside to the homestead tax exemption audit is that it should provide additional tax revenue for Marfa and Presidio ISDs. Ramirez said there are no exact estimates on the increased revenue yet, but it can add up quickly when considering there were 66 residents in Marfa that lost their homestead exemptions — resulting in roughly $100,000-$110,000 times 66 in new taxable value. The school districts should see the increased revenue in their 2025-26 budgets she said.
But districts will have to go through their impending summer budget workshops knowing that homestead exemptions may increase in November. Ramirez said the PCAD will run two tax rolls for the schools, one with current exemptions and one with increased exemptions pending voter approval.
Marfa ISD Chief Financial Officer Rosela Rivera said MISD will craft its budget assuming that the increase in homestead tax exemptions is approved by the voters and goes into effect. It is unclear how the state will make up for the district’s loss in revenue. Rivera said revenue lost from the last homestead tax exemption, which passed in 2023 and increased exemptions from $40,000 to $100,000, was never recovered.
The PCAD can be reached online at presidiocad.org/, via email at info@presidiocad.org, via phone at (432) 729-3431 or (432) 229-3963 and in person. The Marfa office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.