PEROT’S TAXING PROBLEM

The city Board of Tax Equalization has been hearing from a steady stream of angry property owners in the past few months, but it isn’t every day that the board members lock horns with the likes of H. Ross Perot.

Perot was miffed that his 24-acre property on Strait Lane, in the heart of the city’s highest per-capita income neighborhood, was valued by the city’s tax department at an average of $86,000 per acre. That didn’t seem fair when Perot’s buddy, Clint Murchison Jr., had his 26-acre estate on Forest Lane valued at just $50,000 an acre. And the late John Murchison’s 32 acres on Keller Springs road was assessed at only $19,000 an acr

“There’s nothing more desirable about my location than Clint’s or John’s location,” Perot recently told the Board of Tax Equalization.

The hearing was Perot’s second stab at trying to get his property taxes reduced. Two years ago, the tax department assessed Perot’s estate at $110,000 an acre. But the property was reassessed when Perot hired a private firm to argue his case with city hall.

Perot wasn’t happy with the lower $86,000-per-acre figure either, and he personally descended upon city hall this year to argue his case.

“My tax bill is such that I could independently buy every service the city supplies me with and save money,” Perot snapped at board members at one point. “I’m happy to pay my fair share, but 1 don’t want to be taxed like I’m nine or 10 residences and the Murchisons are one.”

At one point, board members suggested that Perot had a point. “Maybe we will have to raise theirs [the Murchisons],” they suggested.

But the board and Perot finally agreed on an assessment that averaged $75,000 per acre, which next year will save Perot – and cost the city -about $1500.

But the board’s concession was only reluctant. “I think you bought it with your eyes open,” board member A.C. Moser said. “But I think we have overpriced it.”