Travis County Commissioners Court
February 21, 2012 (Agenda)
Item 26
>> who is here on item 26?
item 26, I was asked for a time certain and I gave 10:00 a.m.
item 26.
who is here on it?
okay, is somebody coming from the tax assessor office?
26, consider and take appropriate action on quick to educate the public on recently enacted law tax code section 11.131 and voter approval property tax ex exemption for surviving spouse of a 100% disabled veteran.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
tina morton, tax assessor-collector.
and as you read, we are here to raise awareness about recent application of legislation, I should say, for the surviving spouse of a 100% disabled veteran.
in your packet of information I provided a time line that kind of orients you to where this began.
and it started back in 2007 when the voters approved constitutional amendment to grant this exemption to 100% disabled veterans.
however, they did not pass any enabling legislation.
that didn't happen until two years later.
then in November of this past year, voters approved a constitutional amendment for the surviving spouse of a 100% disabled veteran.
so we're here today to talk about where the -- where we're at in this picture of the surviving spouse.
and I'll turn it over to mr. Pope.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners.
oly pope, Travis County veterans services office.
basically the new -- the new law for surviving spouse included the spouses that are not remarried since the death of the veteran.
the deceased veteran must have been receiving the exemption at the time of their death.
the exemption cannot be used retroactively for the prior tax year.
the survivor -- the property was the resident's homestead of the surviving spouse when the veteran deceased.
and the property remains the resident's homestead of the surviving spouse.
those are the criteria for implementing this new law for the property tax exemption for surviving spouses.
keep in mind that the surviving spouses, once they -- the veteran dies and they are only receiving 100% fixed income from the v.a., the veteran himself, a single vet receives 2769.
but with a spouse, together they receive 2924.
once that spouse dies, then the surviving spouse is entitled to what's called a d.i.c.
benefit, dependency indemnity compensation.
her or his income drops dramatically, okay?
a surviving spouse income from a -- a service connected death is 1,195.
a difference of $1,700.
so you can see that this exemption would help that surviving spouse out tremendously.
there are several ways that an individual can receive 100%.
they can receive 100% totally scheduled right out, a condition is rated at 100% and the individual as far as service connected condition.
another way that they can receive 100% is extra scheduling.
extra schedule is when they have multiple conditions and it is deemed that those conditions has prevented that individual from gainful employment.
and lastly, the individual can receive 100% under i.u., which is individual unemployability.
that's when an individual has multiple conditions, but those multiple conditions total a combined rating of 70% or more with at least one of those multiple conditions rated 40%.
the primary way is if an individual has a minimum of a one disability rating of 60% or more, then that individual qualifies for i.u.
there's some other 100% ratings that are temporary, but primary these are the three main ways that individuals can receive 100% rating.
and the surviving spouse, if they pass because of a service connected condition may receive the exemption of their homestead taxes.
thank you.
any questions?
>> yes, I have a couple.
thank you for bringing this to the court.
it's a minimum that we honor not only our veterans but the survivors of our veterans for their service.
but let me ask this question.
how would -- to make sure that the surviving spouse actually is aware of what the new law has dictated and what we are about to carry out, how do we inform them to let them know that, in other words, there is an opportunity for you to take advantage of.
and with the decrease in income and things of that nature on that particular individual, how do we let them know that?
how do we get the information to those individuals?
how would that be done?
what's the mechanism?
>> the mechanism is primarily with anco individual passes away, they should inform the v.a.
>> okay, must or --
>> they should inform the v.a.
>> all right.
>> they may not because they are -- the veterans normally don't engage someone -- military with their spouse.
they know they may be 100%, but they may not know what are the procedures to go through once the individual passes away.
so we get involved by outreach, we get involved by materials news that can help even sure the individuals.
and talk to someone to make an application in your own right for survivors benefits.
okay?
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners] offices.
would qualify for that.
that's still out at the ag, that opinion has not come back yet.
>> not come back, still to give you an idea of the scope, we still have two surviving spouses that have qualified.
we have applied that exemption.
we have another three applications in house, the ag opinion.
>> thank you, thank you for what you do.
>> chief he -- this is our new Travis County chief appraiser who replaced patrick brown, as of --
>> December 1st, 2011.
>> still pretty new and enjoying your job.
>> always exciting, a challenge, we are up to it.
>> you were an assistant director before you were elevated.
>> yes, sir, uh-huh.
>> too we have a one-pager that addresses the key points that mr. Pope outlined today?
if someone to call and ask how do I know whether I qualify for 100% disability which my spouse received as a result of a service-connected disability, can we just pop out a one pager that basically addresses the key points?
>> we have a one pager that we provide at our office.
we have not published it yet on the internet because we're still waiting for the ag opinion to come back on that.
we don't want to create any confusion until that response comes back in, but we do have a one-page response that we pass out in our office.
>> yeah.
this is helpful, in the backup, but actually if you don't have a law degree, it's kind of hard to follow.
>> yeah
>> [laughter]
>> even if you have a law degree, it may be a little difficult.
okay.
so what are we asked to do today?
>> just awareness for the court.
to -- to get an understanding of what the -- what the exemption is all about.
and how it will affect us a
>> [indiscernible]
>> but we should be smart enough to refer exemption questions to the appropriate persons.
and that's y'all, basically.
>> yeah.
>> I don't see myself trying to explain this.
>> yes.
>> the Travis County veterans service office.
>> yes.
>> okay.
our phone number is 512-854-9340.
and I would imagine you would like to give out y'alls numbers or is that necessary at this time.
>> they can call the appraisal district.
our number is 834-9138 or our website www.traviscad.org.
>> or contact the Texas office, 854-9473 and we're www.traviscountytax.org.
we work very choicely with the appraisal district on all exemptions, especially this one because we're still waiting for the final word.
>> right now, any veteran that -- that dies or passes away, after January, 2011, they -- and they are 100%, those spouses automatically would qualify for the exemption.
okay?
the question is is if an individual had a -- had a claim pending, prior to January 2012, and -- and the claim was not adjudicated, you know, within, you know, up until this time period, does that individual spouse fall in the exemption criteria?
when the -- when the veteran passes away, 2010.
or 2011.
okay?
so this is with the -- with the -- the attorney general's office is going to try to give us the ruling on eventually.
there's a lot of things that are pending.
because -- because -- pending adjudication rulings on veterans.
that will dictate the surviving spouses exemptions from 2012 on.
>> okay.
so if you are the spouse of a -- of a veteran, receiving 100% disability, and that veteran dies, then our discussion today impacts you.
but to get answers to whatever questions you have, contact either the -- either the -- the central travis appraisal district, track tax assessor's office or the veteran's services office.
>> yeah.
>> if you forget all of that, contact the Commissioners court and we will steer you in the right direction.
>> who to ask for.
>> judge?
>> [indiscernible] I think that's --
>> [indiscernible] summary that you mentioned.
in the meanwhile we're waiting, it's kind of hard to go through it, do you know when -- appropriate -- if we can get something, maybe a little summary of what we were discussing the other day.
>> we'll put something together that's simpler, that explains the major points in a bulleted format.
something easy to follow.
>> okay.
>> on our website.
get it out so it's a lot more --
>> understand.
>> understandable.
>> it would be good to have.
as soon as possible.
>> we'll get on it.
>> we're waiting on the -- on the ag to opine on that one question.
>> right.
>> that is important.
>> to make it clear.
>> exactly.
>> okay.
anything else today?
thank you all for coming by, we appreciate your patience, also.
we hoped to get to you a little earlier than we did today.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you so much.
>> no, thank you.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
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