88R3628 MLH-D

By: Button H.B. No. 796

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the creation and maintenance by an appraisal district of a publicly available Internet database of information regarding protest hearings conducted by the appraisal review board established for the district.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 41, Tax Code, is amended by adding Section 41.13 to read as follows:

Sec. 41.13. PROTEST HEARING DATABASE. (a) The chief appraiser of each appraisal district shall create and maintain a publicly available and searchable Internet database that contains information regarding protest hearings conducted by the appraisal review board established for the district.

(b) For each protest hearing conducted by the appraisal review board, the database must contain:

(1) the name of each appraisal review board member who attended the hearing;

(2) the date and time of the hearing;

(3) the account number and category for the property that was the subject of the hearing;

(4) the appraised value according to the appraisal district and the property owner's asserted value of the property that was the subject of the hearing; and

(5) the appraisal review board's determination of the protest, including the board's determination of the value of the property if the hearing was to consider a protest regarding appraised value.

(c) The information required to be included in the database regarding a hearing shall be promptly entered in the database after the conclusion and determination of the hearing.

(d) The database may, but is not required to, include information for protests relating to a tax year preceding the 2024 tax year.

SECTION 2. Not later than January 1, 2024, the chief appraiser of each appraisal district shall create and make available to the public the Internet database required by Section 41.13, Tax Code, as added by this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.