Voters elect appraisal board members for the first time in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton counties

For the first time, Texas voters are directly choosing some of the people who will oversee the property tax appraisal process.

Before now the appraisal boards were made up of an elected county tax assessor-collector and a board of members appointed by the taxing units (cities, counties, and school districts). A new state law passed in 2023 restructures the appraisal districts to have nine members -- the tax assessor, five appointed members, and three elected non-partisan members who each serve four-year terms.

The appraisal boards do not determine property values but they oversee the employees responsible for the process. The 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.

DALLAS CENTRAL APPRAISAL BOARD RESULTS

Two candidates running for the Dallas Appraisal Board in Place 2, Kendall Scudder, and Place 3, Alexandra Stewart, were unopposed.

In Place 1, Ekambar Kumar Singirikonda was running against P. Wylie Burge.

TARRANT CENTRAL APPRAISAL BOARD RESULTS

In Tarrant County, all three places were contested.

Sayeda Bilqees Syed, Trae Fowler, and Eric Morris were running for Place 1. Caallie Rigney and Eric B. Crile were running for Place 2 and Chuck Kelley, Lee Henderson, and Matt Bryant were running for Place 3.

A candidate must secure more than 50% of a vote to avoid a runoff.

DENTON CENTRAL APPRAISAL BOARD RESULTS

In the Denton Central Appraisal District, races for all three board positions were contested.

Peter K. Mungiguerra, Jr and Angie Cox were running for Place 1, Sophia Anwar and Lisa McEntire were running in Place 2 and Rick Guzman and Jordan E. Villarreal were running in Place 3.

A candidate must secure more than 50% of a vote to avoid a runoff.

COLLIN CENTRAL APPRAISAL BOARD RESULTS

Brian Swanson, Collin Central Appraisal District Deputy Chief Appraiser, told NBC 5 in April all three people running for the board were running unopposed so the election was canceled and voters did not see the question on their May 4 ballot.

WHAT IS A CENTRAL APPRAISAL DISTRICT?

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.