Fourteen people are running for a seat on the Tarrant Appraisal District’s board of directors. There will be only five people at the table.

The filled slot is symbolic of how high-risk a once modest position has become, largely due to the board’s most controversial decision last year: changing the reassessment plan.

Leading this charge are board members Matt Bryant, Eric Morris and Callie Rigney. Elected by residents in May. They were the first board members elected by nationwide ballot, thanks to a constitutional amendment aimed at giving ordinary people a greater say on rating district boards.

Traditionally, these boards consist only of individuals appointed by taxing agencies such as cities and school districts. The May elections expanded the board, which previously had five people appointed, to nine members, including three elected officials and the tax assessor-collector.

A few months after the newly expanded board gave final approval In the face of a series of reassessment changes aimed at slowing real estate value increases, some tax agency appointees who vote alongside their elected counterparts may find themselves on the outside looking in.

School districts in particular expressed outrage over the changes. They warned that a value recession could occur hurting school budgets Because of Texas’ complicated school funding formula.

Now, with all five appointed positions on the board up for grabs, how incumbent board members vote on the reconsideration plan changes could determine whether they return for another term.

Four of the five current board members have secured the nomination. Rich DeOtte is the only incumbent not nominated by a tax agency. The deadline for tax authorities to nominate candidates was October 15. Among the candidates chosen by tax authorities are:

Each unit has a set number of votes, and they don’t have to give them all to a single candidate; It is not unusual for a taxpayer entity to split its vote total among several candidates.

The city of Fort Worth was the first to vote, casting all 660 votes for District 10 council member Alan Blaylock, who currently serves on the assessment district board.

Fort Worth has the most votes among all taxpayers, followed by Fort Worth ISD, Tarrant County College and Tarrant County.

School districts as a whole have 2,644 votes, while other taxing units have 2,354 votes.

“We need people who understand, or at least have a basic understanding, of how the school funding formula works and how the valuations considered ultimately impact the organizations that vote to have these individuals on the board,” Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria said. said Fort Worth ISD’s chief financial officer.

But the incumbent board members who voted for the reassessment plan remain confident that their choices were correct. Gary Losada, the incumbent who has been the most critical of the tax agencies’ protest of the reassessment plan, said he has no concerns about his decision affecting his future on the board.

“There are larger forces that will determine whether or not I get on the board, and frankly, if the institutions as a whole think I shouldn’t be on the board just because of this plan, and they’re not listening to the bigger picture, then I shouldn’t be on the board,” he said. “But if they make that decision based solely on that and not everything that happened last year, then they might be a little short-sighted.”

Existing tensions were ratcheted up a notch on Oct. 22 when candidates received a Google Forms survey asking a series of questions designed to assess how candidates felt about the reevaluation plan. According to the survey, the answers to the questions will be shared with tax authorities during the vote allocation process.

But many candidates were confused about who was behind the poll. Less than 24 hours after the email was sent, candidates received a second email, this time from Julie Wooddell, executive assistant to Chief Appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt.

“You probably received a survey by email today. Please feel free to decline this request,” Wooddell said. “Many members of the board thought this might be an official communication from the district (but) it is not. Mayor Puente asked us to contact you and strongly recommends that you do not participate in the survey.”

The Fort Worth Report received the email address that sent the survey. The group later described itself as Tarrant Citizens for Responsible Government and said it was inappropriate for Puente to discourage participation in the survey, but did not provide any details about its membership. Bobbitt also confirmed that he did not know who was running the group.

Tax authorities have until December 15 to vote for the candidates. The Tarrant Appraisal District keeps a running tally of vote allocations. Here.

This article appeared for the first time Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.