** REVISION **
SENATE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

COMMITTEE:     Property Tax Reform, Select 

TIME & DATE:   10:00 AM, Thursday, September 20, 2018 

PLACE:         E1.012 (Hearing Room) 
CHAIR:         Senator Paul Bettencourt 

The Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform will meet to take up the following interim charges:

·                Study and recommend ways to enhance voter engagement in local government decisions around budgets and property tax rates through digital media and social media. Determine how budget and tax rate information should be formatted for effective communication through digital and social media. Identify the ways in which digital and social media present new opportunities for voters to give feedback to local governments. Identify best practices among local governments in Texas and in other states.

·                Evaluate whether existing libraries of property tax data and collection methods are adequate for studying local property tax outcomes and identifying drivers of growing property tax levies. Determine the scope of existing data, where it is stored, and how it is made available to the public. Determine whether existing, available data is adequate for the needs of the legislature and the public. Review existing procedures for the collection and verification of data. Receive recommendations from the comptroller regarding the collection, verification, and publication of property tax data.

·                Evaluate the operations of appraisal review boards (ARBs), specifically the training and expertise of members concerning appraisal standards and law, ethics, and meeting procedures. Determine whether ARB operations are sufficiently independent of central appraisal districts and taxing units and whether ARBs and/or chief appraisers should be elected.

**The Committee will take up the remainder of the last charge listed at a later date.**

Those wishing to give public testimony, please limit prepared remarks to 3

minutes. If submitting written testimony, please submit 20 copies, with

your name on each copy, to the Committee during the hearing.

For more information please visit the Committee website at:

http://www.senate.texas.gov/cmte.php?c=585

** See Committee Coordinator for previous versions of the schedule **