HomeMy WebLinkAbout75-362 05-13-1975RESOLUTION NO. 362
WHEREAS, the Legislature of Texas is currently considering H. B.
1463 which has as its worthy objective the elimination of duplicitous
functions in the appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes;
and,
WHEREAS, the City of Euless, as one of the four Northeast Tarrant
County taxing jurisdictions which operate a single tax office, has at-
tained some experience in the cooperative tax office business, especially
the necessity to acquire and retain professionally qualified appraisal
personnel and to protect their work from political pressures; and,
WHEREAS, H.B. 1463 should be further improved if the apparent ef-
ficiency of a single county -wide tax office is not to be marred by
replacing a number of tax offices of varying degrees of merit with fewer
uniformly bad offices, a situation generally analogized to babies and
bath water; and,
WHEREAS, the generally harmonious relationship in the tax business
by Hurst, Euless, Bedford and the H.E.B. Independent School District
would be considerably disrupted if the single board of equalization
appointed by the governing bodies was made subservient to one of such
governing bodies without any similar status toward such other bodies;
and,
WHEREAS, H.B. 1463 contains language which indicates that the
authors of the bill realize that the present constitution contains ob-
stacles to a county -wide tax appraisal system and contemplates that this
bill will have a different effect depending on whether proposed constitu-
tional amendments pass; and,
WHEREAS, certain language of H.B. 1463 would freeze tax receipts for
the first year of operation of the bill to that of the previous year, in
a time of both inflation and heavy demand for governmental services;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
EULESS, TEXAS:
That the City Council of the City of Euless respectfully urges the
Texas Legislature to amend H.B. 1463 to remove the county appraisal office
from the county assessor's office and to consider placing this new office
under the appraisal board as proposed to be established under the act.
2
That the City of Euless respectfully urges the Legislature to amend
H.B. 1463 to make it effective only if the Constitution is amended to
eliminate requirements that the County Commissioners Court be a board of
equalization.
Item No. VI
Council Minutes
May 13, 1975
3
That the City of Euless respectfully urges clarification of that
portion of the H.B. 1463 which would amend Section 2(b) of Article
7176e to apparently require that taxing units utilize a tax rate for
the first year which "would impose the same total dollar amount of
property taxes as were imposed in the previous year." If it is the
intention of the Legislature to freeze local taxes for one year, re-
consideration is respectfully requested. If such is not the case,
the sentence following the quoted language should be amended to avoid
confusion and litigation.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED this
13th day of May
1975,
by a vote of 3 ayes and 0 nays at a regular meeting of
the City Council of the City of Euless, Texas.
ATTEST:
City Secretary
Mayor