A pending lawsuit in another Texas county might put some taxpayers at a disadvantage this year when filing a protest with the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD) over the value of their homes, businesses and other property. TAD officials reported that the value of residential property in Tarrant County has increased about 14 percent this year, which could trigger a significant number of challenges.
The pending lawsuit in Travis County District Court has put a clamp on historical data that can be used as factual evidence in a protest hearing with the appraisal district.
“This is a big threat to taxpayers in Texas and especially to taxpayers here in Tarrant County,” attorney Bill Aleshire told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “We’re dedicated to fighting this. We’re not backing down one bit.”
“TAD has provided ‘a great deal of information’ to satisfy the requirements under the law,” TAD attorney Todd Clark said. “Any further data release is tied up in the lawsuit, filed in September by the district’s software licensing vendors.”
In October, a Travis County district judge granted a temporary injunction ordering that the data be withheld. The software and cost data providers, including Thomson Reuters and Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, say the information is proprietary and its release would cause the entities “substantial competitive harm.”
“At this point, my client can only sit and wait for the process to conclude,” Clark said. “We will participate in the process fully, but we have to let the process continue.”