Texas Senate Bill 2, passed in the 2^nd Special Session of the 88th Legislature in July, 2023, and approved by the voters in November 2023, provided historical property tax relief to both homeowners, apartment renters and commercial property owners. Under the bill, Texas homestead exemptions will rise to $100,000, senior homeowners will be protected from being priced out of their home, the small business exemption for the Franchise Tax will double, and Texas small businesses, including apartment owners, will be protected from excessive appraisal increases.

One of the provisions of SB 2 revises the governance of the county Central Appraisal Districts in Texas for counties with populations greater than 75,000. The boards of directors of Central Appraisal Districts are currently comprised of 5 voting members, appointed by various taxing authorities in the county such as the county itself, cities and school districts. The county’s Tax Assessor-Collector serves as an ad hoc member of the board.

The new law provides for 9 voting board members, comprised of the same 5 appointed positions plus 3 elected members. The county’s Tax Assessor-Collector will continue to serve but as a voting member.

Perhaps the most important part of this new regimen is that appointees to the Appraisal Review Board in each county will have to receive majority approval of the 9 voting members. The majority votes must contain at least 2 of the 3 elected members. This gives those elected to the newly created elected/voting members “veto” power over appointees.

As an elected member of the HCAD Board I will work to establish meaningful qualifications for new appointees. I will also work to establish a feedback mechanism to review the professional performance of the ARB as a whole to determine if the qualification requirements are useful and are working to improve the overall process.