PROPERTY TAX HEARINGS BEGIN
Two of the legislature’s interim committees that are studying property tax appraisals and caps began holding interim hearings during the past month. The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Property Appraisal and Revenue Caps and the House Select Committee on Property Tax Relief and Appraisal Reform have met a combined five times to hear testimony from appraisers, policy analysts, and citizens. Lawmakers are deliberating property tax appraisal caps and revenue caps, but three other topics have also been discussed at length.
First, the committee members are coming to an understanding that the pressure that pushes appraisals higher is not coming from local government officials, but may, in fact, be coming from the state itself. (In the following article, Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle provides an excellent and detailed explanation of why this is the case.)
Second, the committee members are hearing that appraisal district personnel should be separated from the appraisal appeal process. Witnesses have testified convincingly that appraisal review boards (ARBs) give the appearance of being too “chummy” with the appraisal district staff, undermining citizen confidence that a meaningful review of appraisals is available without litigation.
Finally, there is a growing consensus among legislators on the committees that the truth-in-taxation process is somehow “broken” and needs to be fixed. Specifically, some have argued that the effective tax rate calculation, which dates back to 1979, has been modified so many times in the past thirty years that it no longer provides citizens with useful information about whether taxes will go up or down on a typical home. This criticism of the effective rate will be discussed further in a future edition of the TML Legislative Update.
The various committees looking at property taxes will continue to meet over the summer. The TML staff will monitor each hearing.