Legislative Services

More than 300 attendees from tax assessor-collector offices across Texas came together in Galveston the week after Thanksgiving to learn best practices, hear from industry stakeholders and discuss the upcoming legislative session.

In addition to speakers from several state agencies with updates on elections and motor vehicle and property tax processes, attendees heard from automobile dealers (new and used) on issues they are seeing with vehicle supply and demand as well as how they are working to prevent temporary paper plate fraud. Dealers are seeing vehicle inventories starting to resemble pre-pandemic levels, and are hoping to battle catalytic converter theft through harsher penalties in state law (see Senate Bill 224 by Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston).

Denise Davis, partner with David Kaufman PLLC and working with the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas (TACA) for the upcoming session, joined TAC Legislative Consultant Caroline Love to provide an overview of what tax assessor-collectors can expect from the 88th legislative session. Davis summarized election results and their effect on the composition of the Texas Legislature. She also highlighted some hot topics legislators intend to cover, including property tax reform. Love outlined important dates for the upcoming session and discussed some topics of interest to TACA, including the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles' exceptional item request to include funding for a study to replace the current registration and titling system, supported by TACA.

For more information on this article, please contact Caroline Love.