“We are now working with the Dallas County Tax Office to calculate the no-new-revenue tax rate and voter-approval tax rate, which are both based on the certified values,” Ireland said in the memo. “Additionally, we are reviewing the property value detail and state law requirements related to the property tax rate.”
Ireland added, “As a reminder, our revenue increase from reappraisal will be capped at 3.5% regardless of growth in value because of state law.”
In Texas, a central appraisal district exists to provide a single-source valuation of real estate for taxing units (hospitals, ISDs, cities, counties, etc.) that impose a property tax within a district. There is one appraisal district for each of the 254 counties in Texas, and they follow the same geographic boundary as the county, but they are not part of the county government.
An appraisal district is a subdivision of the state and they are governed by its own board. Each appraisal district has a chief and a board of directors. The nine-member board is made up of the tax assessor, five members appointed by the members of the taxing units in the district, and, as of May 2024, three members elected by voters. The funding for the appraisal district comes from all of the taxing units, not just the county government.
Before the creation of the state’s central appraisal districts in 1981, the taxing units would each file their own appraisals of personal property, and if a property owner wanted to protest that appraisal they had to protest each valuation separately.
The appraisal districts were created to separate the entities collecting a property tax from being the same ones who did the appraisals of the property. The districts centralized the appraisals into one valuation to make the entire process easier and more equitable for property owners.
Appraisal districts are required by state law to appraise property at full market value and all taxing units in the county must use those appraisals when collecting a tax.
