Overall Vote Recommendation

Yes

Principle Criteria

Free Enterprise

Property Rights

Personal Responsibility

Limited Government

Individual Liberty

Digest

HB 3307 amends the Tax Code provisions governing renewal requirements for individuals who serve as arbitrators in binding arbitration appeals of appraisal review board orders. Under current law, an arbitrator seeking to renew the person’s agreement with the comptroller must complete at least eight hours of continuing education in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution procedures during the preceding two years. The bill keeps that requirement in place but expands the types of coursework that may satisfy it.

Specifically, the bill allows the required continuing education to be completed through courses offered by a university, college, real estate trade association, or legal association, or through courses approved for continuing legal education. The bill also preserves the existing requirement that an arbitrator complete a revised property tax law training program established for arbitrators if the comptroller determines that the program has been substantially revised.

The House Engrossed version and the Senate Committee Substitute are substantively the same in the key operative language. Both versions amend Section 41A.061(b), Tax Code, to allow a person renewing an agreement to serve as a property tax arbitration arbitrator to satisfy the existing eight-hour continuing education requirement through courses offered by a university, college, real estate trade association, or legal association, or through courses approved for continuing legal education. Both versions also retain the requirement that an arbitrator complete a substantially revised comptroller property tax law training program within 120 days after the revised program becomes available.

The main differences are procedural and formatting-related rather than substantive.

Author (1)

Candy Noble

Sponsor (1)

Adam Hinojosa

Contact the Author

Rep. Candy Noble

Capitol Phone:

(512) 463-0186

Capitol Office:

EXT E1.508

E-Mail:

[email protected]

Visit Official Website

Fiscal Notes

According to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB), HB 3307 will have no fiscal implications for the State. The fiscal note explains that the bill would allow a course in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution procedures approved for continuing legal education to count toward the continuing education hours required for a person to renew an agreement to serve as an arbitrator in appeals of appraisal review board determinations.

The fiscal note does not identify any state cost, savings, revenue gain, or revenue loss. Because the bill modifies what types of existing continuing education courses may satisfy an existing renewal requirement, rather than creating a new program, agency duty, fee, or appropriation, the LBB anticipates no measurable state fiscal impact. The Comptroller of Public Accounts is listed as the source agency for the fiscal note.

For local governments, the LBB also anticipates no significant fiscal implications. The bill concerns arbitrator renewal qualifications within the property tax arbitration process, but the fiscal note does not project meaningful costs or savings for appraisal districts, counties, cities, school districts, or other local taxing units.

Vote Recommendation Notes

HB 3307 is narrow in scope and makes a limited administrative change to an existing arbitrator renewal requirement. It does not create a new state program, impose a new mandate on taxpayers, establish a new fee or penalty, or expand agency rulemaking authority. The bill does not grant additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

The bill’s substantive effect is to allow a person renewing an agreement to serve as an arbitrator in property tax appraisal review board appeals to count certain arbitration and alternative dispute resolution continuing education courses, including courses approved for continuing legal education, toward the existing eight-hour renewal requirement. That change modestly reduces compliance rigidity within the current system by giving arbitrators more flexibility in how they satisfy required training.

From a limited-government and taxpayer perspective, the bill presents little downside. The LBB fiscal note anticipates no fiscal implications to the State and no significant fiscal implications to local governments. Because the bill operates within an existing statutory framework and broadens acceptable education options without expanding bureaucracy or spending, Texas Policy Research recommends that lawmakers vote YES on HB 3307.

Free Enterprise

The bill may reduce a minor barrier to continued participation in the property tax arbitration market by recognizing more continuing education options. It does not create subsidies, preferential treatment, or new regulatory burdens.

Property Rights

The bill does not directly affect property ownership, appraisal standards, tax liability, or protest rights. Its impact is indirect: by helping maintain a broader pool of eligible arbitrators, it may support property owners’ access to binding arbitration in appraisal disputes.

Personal Responsibility

The bill preserves the expectation that arbitrators maintain professional competence, but it allows them to choose from a broader set of qualifying education options. That approach relies more on individual initiative than on a narrow state-prescribed compliance path.

Limited Government

The bill does not create a new agency, program, fee, penalty, fund, or rulemaking grant. It operates within an existing regulatory framework and slightly loosens an administrative requirement, though it does leave the underlying state renewal requirement in place.

Individual Liberty

The bill does not create new coercive requirements, penalties, or restrictions on individuals. It modestly improves liberty by giving arbitrators more flexibility in how they satisfy an existing continuing education requirement.

Related Legislation

SB 2960 (Same As)

View Bill Text and Status