CAPITOL UPDATE

Information on the Senate Finance Committee

(AUSTIN) -- Along with my memberships of the Sunset Advisory Commission and Natural Resources, Criminal Justice and Health and Human Resources Committees, I am lucky to be one of fifteen senators to sit on the Senate Finance Committee under Chairman Steve Ogden and his Vice-Chair Judith Zaffirini. The Senate Finance Committee is in charge of fulfilling billions of dollars worth of appropriations requests every two years and is made up of two subcommittees: the Finance Higher Education Subcommittee and the Property Appraisal and Revenue Caps Subcommittee.

On Wednesday this week, the Finance Property Appraisal and Revenue Caps Subcommittee met in Austin to research interim charges. This subcommittee is primarily in charge of reviewing the property appraisal system, including:

• the duties and responsibilities of chief appraisers and appraisal districts;
• any abuses that occur in the appraisal process;
• the process of appointing the members of boards of directors of appraisal districts;
• the impact of adding members to the boards of directors of appraisal districts who are not appointed by the taxing jurisdictions of the district and methods for appointing these additional directors;
• the usefulness of information provided in a notice of appraised value;
• the impact of HB 1010, 80th Legislature, Regular Session, relating to appraisal districts crossing county lines;
• any benefit from requiring more uniformity in appraisal standards used by appraisal districts;
• any revisions to the property valuation appeal system that could reduce the cost of dispute resolution;
• the likelihood of, and any associated benefit from, increased compliance with the existing business personal property rendition law if chief appraisers are given limited audit authority.

This week, the subcommittee studied the benefits and limitations of property tax appraisal caps compared to a limit on revenue a local jurisdiction can receive without the approval of the voters in the locality as well as the cost and benefit to the state of projects approved by school districts limiting the value of business investment under the Texas Economic Development Act (Ch 313, Tax Code), and the funding impact on public schools.

If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments regarding any of the committees I currently sit on, please feel free to contact my office. My staff and I are always looking for input from constituents so that we may best serve the citizens of Senate District Two.

To contact Sen. Deuell about the legislative process, contact the Capitol Office at (512) 463-0102 or mail to Sen. Bob Deuell, Texas Senate, P.O. Box 12068, Austin, TX 78711. The website for the Texas Senate is www.Senate.state.tx.us. The e-mail address for Sen. Deuell is: bob.deuell@senate.state.tx.us.