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House Bill 3612 |
House Author: Otto et al. |
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Effective: 1-1-10 |
Senate Sponsor: Williams |
House Bill 3612 adds temporary Government Code provisions, set to expire January 1, 2013, that require the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) to develop a pilot program under which a property owner in certain counties may appeal an appraisal review board (ARB) order to SOAH, as an election of remedies and an alternative to seeking judicial review in district court, if the ARB has determined the appraised or market value of the property at issue to be more than $1 million. The bill limits the pilot program to Bexar, Cameron, El Paso, Harris, Tarrant, and Travis Counties and to real or personal property other than industrial property or minerals. SOAH is not required to determine more than 3,000 appeals and may develop a formula to allocate the number of appeals by county. The bill sets out related procedures and includes provisions to foster SOAH administrative law judges who are sufficiently knowledgeable in property tax matters. An appeal to SOAH is by trial de novo and the SOAH hearing of such an appeal is exempted from the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Texas Rules of Evidence. A pending appeal does not affect the delinquency date for taxes on the property involved in the appeal, and a property owner may not exercise the SOAH appeal option if taxes on the property are delinquent. The bill requires SOAH and the chief appraisers in the pilot program counties to submit a report on the program to the legislature not later than January 1, 2013.