Taxpayers for Equal Appraisal Access Information!
Taxation must be equal and uniform!

Property taxes must be equal and uniform.
Protesting taxes must be a fair and equitable process.
All property must be valued and taxed equally and uniformly.

Taxpayers for equal appraisal!
-TEA-

Email us:  coachdanhart@msn.com

HCADTEA.ORG is a non-profit organization established to help you understand how to protest your property taxes, both real property and business property, so that you can save money.  In a perfect world, your property would be taxed fairly and uniformly.  We are here to help you understand how property taxes are set, both in Houston and Harris County, Texas, the State of Texas, and, in fact, all over the United States. 

Spring, 2002 Set out below are stories by date of occurrence which will interest you, the property taxpayer in Harris County, about activities at HCAD: The is a continuation of a brief history of some of the public and private statements of HCAD’S current general counsel and at the same time, the second in command of HCAD’s entire operation, Sands Littlefield Stiefer (S.L.S.):  Excerpts:  continued.....   …By the same token, you are here to ensure that no taxpayer gets a free ride by virtue of the fact that he or she has a lower value than they should or that he or she gets an exemption to which they are not entitled.  That is a very, very important function for you to carry out.  I cannot begin to tell you how significant the property tax is in the operations of the state and the operations of all of the local governments that we serve.  And, it is extremely important that the people of Harris County trust that they have somebody that is sitting there to ensure that nobody gets a free ride.    … But in terms of your core function, which is ensuring that nobody gets a free ride, in a case that is brought to you, you are expected to be independent.  And that’s a very important thing, not simply in what you do internally but in keeping in mind how you appear to the staff, to the public that you serve, to the tax consultants, and to everyone.  It is extremely important always that you have that appearance of impartiality, appearance of fairness, and that really sums up very, very neatly what the history of the ARB has been in the 20 years that it’s been in its current incarnation.  People will bring up problems of one sort or another, where the ARB has strayed from its mission or where the ARB has not strictly interpreted the law and decided, instead, that it would make its own law, and they’ve gone to the legislature and said, “Hey, fix this.”     …The legislature decided to fix it.  Unfortunately the way that they work they generally don’t sit back and say, how can we figure out a grand, simple solution to this.  They just do a patchwork for that particular situation and go on.    …Be careful out there.  You are public officials.  Now, y’all may not think of yourselves that way.  Certainly ‘til you took the oath of office to be on the appraisal review board, you were not public officials, you were private citizens.  We talk about the ARB being a citizen board and that’s true, as far as I know you are all citizens. But you are now public officials in exactly the same sense that I’m a public official, that Jim Robinson is a public official, that Paul Bettencourt is a public official, that Rick Perry is a public official, and you all know that public officials,…. in the 2000’s, public officials live in a fish bowl and there is nothing that reporters like better to do, to hold up and say, “Hey, look at this guy or gal, they are getting a free ride on the taxpayer’s tab. We saw some instances of that last year that were very, very troublesome.  The new provision we have courtesy of the legislature that you cannot serve on the ARB if you owe delinquent taxes is an example of that.  Folks went around and found some circumstances where people in the property tax area, public officials, owed delinquent taxes   …Always check your own conscience.  If you are going to do something that, you know, you don’t want to see on the front page of the Houston Chronicle or you would not want to tell your mother about, you might want to talk with Mr. Seagert. Be sure that it is legal and still consult your conscience before you do it.

What is the taxpayer's role? You can play an effective role in the process..... if you know your rights, understand the remedies available to you, and fulfill your responsibilities.