County Candidate Questionnaire

On behalf of the members of your local association of REALTORS®, we commend you for seeking office and appreciate you taking time to complete this questionnaire.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to establish an issue-based dialog between you and your local REALTOR® partners, as well as our clients who buy and sell real estate in our community.

REALTORS® are committed to our communities, our clients, and the public. We work to ensure private property rights are protected, and that Texans can buy, sell, lease, and enjoy real property. To accomplish those goals, we monitor and advocate on a wide variety of local, state, and federal policy issues. The following questions seek to understand your position as a candidate and potential lawmaker on issues that will impact housing and real estate within your jurisdiction. 

Your responses to the questionnaire will not be made public, nor are they a litmus test for campaign support.

Your local association of REALTORS® appreciates your attention to this candidate questionnaire and is available to answer any questions. 

We also work in strong partnership with the Texas REALTORS®, our state-level professional association. You may contact the Texas REALTORS® Governmental Affairs Department at 800-873-9155.

County Judge/Commissioner Candidate Questionnaire
Candidate information

Issue: County rulemaking authority

Background: Counties in Texas have various powers and duties related to regulating land use, regulating structures, platting and subdividing of land. Other border counties also are allowed to require water, sewer, and other utility service to residential property.

Background: County rulemaking powers have been used in specific circumstances in some fast-growth areas of Texas.

Issue: Appraisal caps
Texas has a 10% cap on the increase in assessed values for residential homesteads. Several proposals in the Texas Legislature would artificially cap property appraisals at 3% or 5% annually. Further, some of these proposals would allow local-option elections that would allow for appraisal caps on a local level.

Issue: Local homestead exemption
Background: Local taxing jurisdictions have the ability to grant local property owners an exemption for their homesteads.

Issue: Property taxes
Background: Creating a budget and adopting a property tax rate to support that budget are major functions of locally elected officials in Texas.

In simple terms, the Texas property tax system is based on an equation that multiplies a property’s appraised value by a locally adopted tax rate. In recent years, Texans have seen skyrocketing property tax bills due to rapid increases in appraised value. In addition, over the last decade, many local taxing jurisdictions have seen their budgets increase over 60%, far outpacing the rate of inflation and population growth.

When appraisal values increase, taxing jurisdictions can hold the line by adopting a tax rate that guarantees no new revenue will be realized from existing properties, instead relying on new or improved properties to generate new revenue. (Formerly known as the “effective tax rate,” new property tax laws resulting from Senate Bill 2 from the 86th Texas Legislature will rename this the “no-new-revenue maintenance and operations rate.”)

Some taxing entities assert that if they do not change or even lower tax rates, but taxpayers’ overall bills go up due to an increase in the appraised value of the property, this does not constitute a property tax increase.

Issue: Sales price disclosure
Background: The State of Texas does not require the disclosure of sales prices for real property transactions. However, for many years, many local governments and central appraisal districts (CADs) have argued in favor of mandating such disclosure.

Issue: Tax rates and the economy

Issue: Eminent domain

General campaign questions