The Tarrant Appraisal District’s recent changes to local tax policy might violate Texas law, according to a state lawmaker. 

“I don’t believe the actions they’ve taken are legal,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said at a Senate Committee on Finance hearing in early September. 

Bettencourt is the architect behind a constitutional amendment that reshaped the way taxing districts are governed in Texas. The amendment approved by voters in November gave residents the power to elect some appraisal district board members for the first time in history. Now, the lawmaker is concerned about the legality of the Tarrant Appraisal District’s subsequent shift in direction, which included major changes to its reappraisal plan — and he’s not the only one.

The Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, which explores the tax and fiscal impacts of proposed legislation, published a report detailing the ways in which Tarrant’s actions could violate state law. The district’s actions, the report states, “raise concerns about equal and uniform taxation, the scope of a (board of directors’) legal authority, and the integrity of the property tax system” should other taxing entities follow in Tarrant’s steps.

But legal concerns haven’t stopped other county appraisal districts from doing just that. Several counties have followed the lead of the Tarrant Appraisal District by enacting changes to their reappraisal plans, including moving reappraisals to once every three years, requiring a new level of evidence to raise property values, and freezing values after a successful protest. 

Such changes are a few examples of the way that appraisal districts across Texas are grappling with the unforeseen consequences of a paradigm shift in the way county appraisal district board members are selected. The May elections largely flew under the radar; in Tarrant, they attracted only 6% of registered voters, and turnout rates were far lower in many less populous counties. 

Since then, newly elected board members have taken action to address statewide frustration with the property tax burden faced by homeowners. Residents who fear being taxed out of their homes have praised efforts to change reappraisal plans while school districts have derided them, arguing that changes to how properties are assessed will wreak havoc on school finances. 

Brent South, chief appraiser for Hunt County and the legislative chair for the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts, said the association didn’t really know what to expect when voters first approved the new elected positions. The association has always taken the position that politics and appraisals don’t mix, and the elections represented a fresh injection of politics into the system.

“And so there was some concern,” he said. “You don’t know the sky is falling until the sky is falling, and while I’m not saying the sky is falling, appraisal is a science.” 

South said messing with that science — which is mandated by Texas tax code — could spell trouble.

“If boards of directors are dictating that the appraisal district should no longer appraise at market value, it kind of creates a conflict with what we’re required to do and what the local boards are expecting to be done,” he said.

The new elected board members leading the charge in Tarrant County — Matt Bryant, Eric Morris and Callie Rigney — did not respond to requests for comment, but have championed the policy changes as game changing for residents. They have previously maintained the changes are legal. 

Bexar and Johnson enter the fray

When the trio ran as a slate of candidates in the first-ever elections for the Tarrant Appraisal District board this spring, they did so with a very specific policy platform: They all vowed to cap residential appraisal increases at 5% and limit appraisals to once every three years. 

“The reforms mandated by the voters, they start today,” Bryant said in July, during his first official meeting as a board member.

But senior board members, appointed by taxing entities, tempered their new colleagues’ proposals, voting instead to appraise homes once every two years (previously, all properties were appraised every year). Bryant, Morris and Rigney — all endorsed by County Judge Tim O’Hare, a vocal proponent of property tax cuts — were the only votes in favor of a three-year schedule. The board also voted to require “clear and convincing evidence” to justify increasing a home’s value by more than 5% compared with the year before.

The newly elected trio’s hoped-for policy changes were curtailed. But, a month later, the Johnson Appraisal District’s board of directors did what their neighbors 45 miles to the north could not. Board members approved a move to a once-every-three-years appraisal cycle and froze property values for the next two years. 

They also adopted the “clear and convincing evidence” standard that Tarrant board members first established to justify raising values. Under Johnson’s reappraisal plan, however, that standard must be used to justify any value increase — whether it’s above or below 5%.

Morris lauded the move in a Sept. 12 Facebook post, where he noted how similar these changes were to those made in Tarrant County.

“Our movement is statewide,” he wrote. “Texans are sending the message loud and clear. Congratulations to the people of Johnson County. Board of Directors, good job!”

Like in Tarrant, a slate of three candidates ran for the newly created positions in Johnson County. Those candidates boasted about their membership in a Facebook group dedicated to the abolition of property taxes in the state. Unlike in Tarrant, existing board members were already primed to take decisive action once the slate joined them. Members of the group had already convinced local taxing entities to appoint them to the board the year prior, making it easier to pass their proposed reforms after the slate took office.

“We will provide transparency to ensure that you know exactly how this process works and give you the best chance of keeping taxes as low as possible and eventually eliminating property taxes altogether,” the slate stated on their campaign website. “We are not looking for a career in politics. We want to work ourselves out of this job!”

A day later and another 240 miles away, members of the Bexar Appraisal District’s board approved a more narrow change to its reappraisal plan. Board members unanimously approved a provision that gives residents a one-year reprieve from reappraisal if they successfully protested their property’s value the year prior. The board rejected the “clear and convincing evidence” 5% threshold over concerns that it might not be legal.

As in Tarrant, the Bexar Appraisal District faced pushback from local school districts that rely on property tax funding. And after board members approved the changes, San Antonio’s Deputy Finance Director Troy Elliott sounded the alarm over potential impacts to the city, including an anticipated jump in local residents protesting their homes’ appraised value. 

“(There is) a potential negative impact on future property tax revenue, as far as leveling those out,” he said. “It’s going to be purely dependent on the function of what market values are doing. Are they stable, are they increasing, are they going down?” 

Other appraisal districts across the state have weighed similar changes. An effort to switch to a once-every-two-years appraisal cycle in Lubbock stalled. However, the Lubbock Appraisal District board did approve another piece of Tarrant’s plan, voting to take previous protests and settlements into account when determining a property’s value. Board members will consider the appraisal schedule again in a Sept. 25 meeting.

Introducing politics to the appraisal district

The injection of politics into Texas appraisal districts has raised eyebrows across the state. But less than 50 years ago, politics and appraisals were inseparable.

Back then, there was no uniformity in how appraisals were conducted, or when, or on what; central appraisal districts didn’t exist, making it difficult to separate appraisals from tax collection; and the state provided little oversight of the process. 

In 1979, Rep. Wayne Peveto, a Democratic representative from Orange, helped secure the passage of a reform bill now known as the “Peveto bill.” The legislation, which had failed to cross the finish line in several previous sessions, helped establish the property tax system residents know today. 

Peveto’s bill created central appraisal districts to separate tax collection from appraisals, and required property to be assessed at full market value using widely accepted appraisal techniques. Both of these measures aimed to depoliticize the process by taking guesswork out of the process and establishing firm standards. 

The legislation also required counties to establish appraisal review boards, where residents could protest their appraisals.

Fast forward to 2024, and property tax reform is once again at the forefront of legislators’ minds. Over the last five years, lawmakers have made significant interventions to lower residents’ tax burdens, including expanding homestead exemptions; tightening restrictions on how much a municipality can collect in property taxes without voter approval; and injecting money into school districts to compress their tax rates. 

Bettencourt, the Houston Republican who helped give voters the right to elect appraisal board members, has been a leading voice on the issue of property tax reform. When he drafted the legislation that enabled those elections, Bettencourt said the change was designed to give taxpayers more say in their government. Traditionally, appraisal district board members have been appointed by taxing entities like municipalities and school districts; the legislation added three new board positions to be elected by voters in a countywide election. 

Tax assessor-collector Wendy Burgess, who will leave office next year after losing the Republican primary to Rick Barnes, has criticized the elections for undoing progress made by the Peveto bill. The tax assessor-collector has previously been a nonvoting member of the appraisal board; the legislation made the position a voting member, thinning the barrier between tax collection and appraisals.

“We just brought politics back into the appraisal system,” Burgess said at a Jan. 12 meeting where appraisal board members officially called for the election. 

Rich DeOtte, an appraisal district board member appointed by taxing entities, disagreed.

“I don’t think politics have ever left appraisals,” he said. “In my opinion, it changed forms, but it has continued.”

The new board positions are nonpartisan by law. However, many elected members making waves in Tarrant, Johnson and Bexar are self-described conservatives hoping to further Republican positions on tax reform. In Tarrant, the winning slate was endorsed by multiple Republican leaders, including O’Hare. Their campaign promise to lower property taxes by any means necessary echoed Republican talking points statewide.

South, the legislative chair for the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts, said the association will encourage several reforms from lawmakers — including mandatory training for appraisal board members — during the 2025 legislative session, which kicks off in January.

“We think it’s important that board members have a full understanding of what it is that they can and cannot do,” he said. “That way, there’s no disappointment if somebody files to run for this board, only to find out once they’ve gone through an election campaign and got elected, they’re limited on what they can do.”

Experts watch for future consequences

Some consequences from the elections remain to be seen. Traditionally, appraisal review board members — who hear residents’ property value protests — have been selected by a local administrative judge. Now, South said, they must be approved by a majority of the appraisal district’s board of directors. At least two of the three elected board members must sign on to an appointment for it to pass, he continued, which means they could effectively veto an appraisal review board nomination.

“We don’t know if it’ll happen or not,” he said. “The first (appraisal review board) appointment process by the board of directors won’t take place until the first of the year. So we don’t know if that’s going to be something that happens or not, but it is a possibility, and it is concerning to us.”

The other specter looming in the new year is the property-value study, which is conducted every two years to determine education funding distribution. If the district’s property value estimations are too different from the state’s, school districts are at risk of losing state funding. 

Tarrant Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt previously told the Report that the appraisal district won’t know until January 2026 — more than five months after 2025 tax rolls are certified — if a school district failed the state property value study. For districts like Carroll ISD, that could mean losing millions in school funding. 

“In a changing real estate market, if you’re not reappraising every year, you’re not going to be at market value,” South said. “And ultimately, that could have an impact on state funding for the local school districts.”