When the Appraisal Districts were established by the Legislature (LEG) in 1979, members of the Appraisal Review Board (ARB) were selected by the Board of Directors of the Appraisal District. The Board of Directors (BOD) were appointed by the taxing districts they represented. (school board, city council, MUD district, etc.) This gave assurance that the taxing districts had a voice in the operation of the Appraisal, District. In addition, they would have, through the BOD a voice in who would serve on the ARB to mitigate value disputes between the Appraisal District and the property owner.
This caused issues with both property owners and their agents in seeking relief. There was concern that the Appraisal Review Board was too closely aligned to the Appraisal District. In order to address this issue, the Leg in their 2011 session changed the selection process whereby, a state judge appointed individuals to serve on the ARB.
This selection process continued until the most recent LEG session, 2023, in which the ARB appointment process was moved back under the control of the BOD. Now, the BOD makes the ARB member selection.
In order to give some voice from the public, the LEG added a provision that three of the BOD members must be selected (via election) county-wide and that one of the three members selected by such election MUST serve on the BOD committee that selects the ARB members. Thus, in theory, giving more voice to the property owners; however, it also opens the door to special interest groups and corporations that might benefit financially.
It is important not to allow partisan politics to enter such a selection process. In order to achieve this, it is imperative to select and vote for candidates who will not attempt to insert partisan politics into the operation of the Appraisal District or the selection of ARB members.
The following individuals have had experience serving on the Board of Directors and will continue to serve the public in a non-partisan manner.
Hope Hisle Piper
Jon Lux
Mason Moses