Amend CSHB 988 (house committee report) by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION ____.  Subchapter C, Chapter 41, Tax Code, is amended by adding Section 41.445 to read as follows:
Sec. 41.445.  INFORMAL CONFERENCE BEFORE HEARING ON PROTEST. (a) The appraisal review board shall schedule an informal conference with the appraisal office for each property owner who files a notice of protest with the board, to be held before the hearing on the protest. Notice of the date, time, and location of the informal conference shall be delivered to the property owner with the notice of protest hearing required under Section 41.46.
(b)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), the informal conference may not be scheduled to be held on the same day on which the hearing on the protest is scheduled to be held or during the five-day period preceding that date.
(c)  On request made in writing by the property owner to the appraisal office with good cause shown, the appraisal office shall reschedule the informal conference for a later date that is before the date of the hearing on the protest. The rescheduling of the informal conference under this subsection does not require the delivery of additional written notice to the property owner. The appraisal office may reschedule the informal conference for a date during the five-day period described by Subsection (b) with the property owner's consent.
(d)  The appraisal office shall cancel the informal conference if the property owner informs the appraisal office, in writing, that the property owner elects not to participate in the conference.
(e)  The property owner's failure to appear at the informal conference does not prevent the appraisal review board from hearing the protest and issuing an order determining the protest.
SECTION ____.  Section 41.45(b-1), Tax Code, is amended to read as follows:
(b-1)  An appraisal review board shall conduct a hearing on a protest by telephone conference call if [:
[(1)]  the property owner notifies the board that the property owner intends to appear by telephone conference call in the owner's notice of protest or by written notice filed with the board not later than the 10th day before the date of the hearing [; or
[(2)     the board proposes that the hearing be conducted by telephone conference call and the property owner agrees to the hearing being conducted in that manner].
SECTION ____.  Section 41.445, Tax Code, as added by this Act, and Section 41.45(b-1), Tax Code, as amended by this Act, apply only to a protest under Chapter 41, Tax Code, for which a notice of protest is filed by a property owner on or after the effective date of this Act. A protest under Chapter 41, Tax Code, for which a notice of protest is filed by a property owner before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the notice of protest is filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.