BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4101

By: Shine

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The 87th Texas Legislature enacted legislation allowing property owners to access limited binding arbitration to compel compliance with certain procedural requirements related to protests of the appraised value of property. The process has been implemented successfully for the limited list of reasons a property owner may access limited binding arbitration and many property owners have already availed themselves of this new process. However, access to limited binding arbitration could be expanded further. C.S.H.B. 4101 seeks to allow a property owner to compel compliance with the hearing procedures that have been adopted by an appraisal review board through limited binding arbitration.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4101 amends the Tax Code to expand the scope of the authorization for a property owner who files notice of a property tax protest to request limited binding arbitration in order to compel compliance by a chief appraiser or appraisal review board (ARB), as appropriate, to rescind procedural rules adopted by the ARB that are not in compliance with the model hearing procedures prepared by the comptroller of public accounts so as to authorize the property owner also to compel compliance with the hearing procedures adopted by the ARB. This change applies only to a request for limited binding arbitration related to a protest for which a notice of protest is filed by a property owner on or after the bill's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

January 1, 2024.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 4101 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

Whereas the introduced authorized a property owner to request limited binding arbitration to compel a chief appraiser or ARB to comply with the model hearing procedures prepared by the comptroller of public accounts, including by rescinding procedural rules adopted by the ARB that are not in compliance with those procedures, the substitute authorizes a property owner instead to request limited binding arbitration to compel a chief appraiser or ARB to comply with the hearing procedures adopted by the ARB, in addition to compelling rescission of such ARB procedural rules. The substitute omits provisions that appeared in the introduced expanding the matters that may be the subject of such a request to include compelling the chief appraiser or ARB, as appropriate, to comply with the following:

· the comptroller's Appraisal Review Board Manual in use at the time the property owner filed a notice of protest; and

· any other procedural requirement established under applicable state law relating to a taxpayer protest.

The substitute includes a procedural provision absent from the introduced establishing the prospective application of the bill's provisions to requests for limited binding arbitration.

The substitute changes the bill's effective date from September 1, 2023, as in the introduced, to January 1, 2024.