City leaders say commercial properties may be undervalued -- and that could be leaving homeowners holding the bill.

City Representative Courtney Niland told KFOX 14 about a piece of land that was recently purchased by the city.

The market value on the books, she says, was a little more than a $1 million.

Then, two appraisers were brought in by the city, and worth, she said, came in at more $3 million, and that's what the city paid.

But before that, property taxes levied had been based upon the $1 million estimated value.

Rep. Niland says this has happened quite a bit since she's been on council for the past 9 months.

That's why she brought it up in council Tuesday.

The problem, she says, is that residential properties could be getting an unfair share of the tax burden in El Paso.

So, Niland said owners of commercial properties, which are appraised by the CAD, could be getting off the hook when it comes to paying their fair share of taxes, leaving the city with less money to operate and provide services.

Now, city staff have been instructed to figure out what can be done to fix what could be taking tax dollars away from the city.

In the meantime, Niland said, the problem is at the state level.

"The problem is Texas is a nondisclosure state, and we're probably, in the short-term, not going to be able see those sale prices.

That makes the issue difficult," she said.

In disclosure states, sale prices must be submitted to the county and made publicly available.

This allows county property assessors to follow trending prices for comparable properties.

KFOX 14 heard from the CAD last week about this issue.

The chief appraiser, Dinah L. Kilgore, agrees that having Texas be a disclosure state would help with this problem.

 This topic is set to come up again before council sometime in May.