Tarrant Appraisal District board members voted 6-3 against renewing their membership with the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts.
The organization is an incorporated nonprofit that focuses on promoting the effective and efficient functioning and administration of appraisal districts in Texas.
“I don’t know how we can belong to a group that’s actively lobbying against us,” Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD) board member Matt Bryant said. “It makes no sense.”
Bryant criticized the statewide association’s push to have lawmakers address a conflict in the Texas tax code.
The code states that property must be appraised at the beginning of each year while also stating that the chief appraiser must reappraise at least once every three years, per the Fort Worth Report. The organization has taken the stance that “the chief appraiser shall reappraise annually to make sure we are at market value,” as its legislative chair, Brent South, testified at a Texas Senate committee hearing on November 7.
That discrepancy became an issue after the TAD board of directors voted to change the district’s appraisal schedule earlier this year. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the board voted 5-3 to change the frequency of property evaluations from annually to biennially. Despite the efforts of new TAD board directors Eric Morris, Matt Bryant, and Callie Rigney, who ran on limiting the county’s appraisals to once every three years, the two-year cycle for residential properties was passed this summer.
Board member Eric Morris argued that the association should have remained neutral and not taken sides on the reappraisal plan.
“It is even seen as an ethical issue, since all these members are paying fees to this organization,” Morris said. “It wouldn’t be right to argue for some of your members and against others.”
Not all board members supported ending the district’s ties to the association.
Board member Alan Blaylock voted against leaving the association, arguing that the additional cost of sending people to training conferences sponsored by the organization would cost as much as $14,000, reported FWR.
South told FWR that he is saddened to lose the TAD’s membership and hopes it will reconsider its position.