Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

The following topics were identified as platform items for the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas during the 86th Legislative Session.

Texas Sunset Commission – Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)

H.B. 604 was effective on Sept. 1, 2019. The bill relates to the continuation and functions of the Texas DMV and to the operations of certain other entities performing functions associated with the department. The Texas Sunset Commission’s review process examines the agency for the purpose of making improvements to troubled programs and/or eliminating redundancies within the organization. The new legislation states that the DMV board will adopt rules and policies that establish standards for reviewing contested cases. The bill also:
- authorizes a licensed salvage vehicle dealer to buy and/or sell salvage and non-repairable motor vehicles that have been issued a salvage or non-repairable vehicle title;
- authorizes the use of digital license plates;
- establishes a risk-based system for monitoring and preventing fraud related to vehicle registration and titling;
- authorizes the DMV and the tax assessor-collector to audit, perform a compliance review, or investigate a person providing titling and registration services by March 1, 2020;
- requires the DMV to implement and complete a registration and title system training program by Dec. 1, 2019;
- requires all county tax assessor-collectors to make WebDealer available to all motor vehicle dealers and allow them to submit titling and registration applications electronically by Sept. 1, 2020; and
- requires counties to comply with state contracting practices and establishes specific criteria for contracts with full-service deputies. Contracts must be rebid by March 31, 2020.
S.B. 616 was effective on Sept. 1, 2019, unless noted below. The bill relates to the continuation and functions of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) of the State of Texas, the conditional transfer of the driver’s licensing program to the Texas DMV, the abolition of the Texas Private Security Board, the transfer of the motorcycle and off-highway vehicle operator training programs to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and the regulation of other programs administered by the DPS. The legislation also addresses penalties and fees.
- The bill authorizes a conditional transfer of the driver’s license program from DPS to the DMV on Sept. 1, 2021, including existing rules, policies, fees, contracts, pending contested cases, property, funds, full-time employees and more.
- The bill extends the renewal requirement from six to eight years for driver’s licenses, provisional licenses, learner’s licenses, occupational licenses, and other licenses specified by the bill.
- Fees for driver’s license renewals are increased to accommodate the extended renewal period.

Texas Sunset Commission – Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC)

H.B. 3754 was effective on Sept. 1, 2019. The bill supports and actively engages in legislation amending the TABC to allow local taxing units to contract with private entities for the purpose of collecting local delinquent alcohol beverage license fees owed to the county. Currently, cities and counties have limited options for recovering delinquent alcohol permit and license fees.
- This bill amends the Alcoholic Beverage Code to allow cities and counties to contract with a third-party vendor for collection of the fee once it becomes 60 days late.
- The bill authorizes the third-party vendor to assess a collection fee in addition to collecting the fee owed to the city or county.
- Lastly, H.B. 3754 allows the commission to suspend or cancel the permit if the fee is not paid within 180 days of the fee being levied.

Ad Valorem Tax Reforms

H.B. 492 will be effective Jan. 1 of this year. Hurricane Harvey’s destructive power demonstrated a significant need for taxing jurisdictions to have options for reappraisals or exemptions for property destroyed in natural disasters. The bill allows elected officials to act as a resource on how an optional temporary local exemption from ad valorem taxation of certain property damaged by disasters would work logistically.
H.B. 2 supports legislation that promotes transparency in tax rate calculations and tax rates imposed by any local jurisdiction. Most of the provisions of S.B. 2 are effective this month, January 2020. The bill lowers the percent increase that an entity can increase tax revenue without approval from the voters through a mandatory vote.
- B. 2 makes changes to the process a county uses to adopt a tax rate, the manner in which a county will calculate the tax rate, and the tax appraisal process.
- The term “rollback tax rate” has been changed to “voter-approval tax rate” and has been lowered to 3.5 percent. If a county adopts a tax rate of 3.5 percent or greater, an automatic election will be triggered for November.
- The voter-approval tax rate can be modified by special adjustments such as including any unused increment rate, or utilizing special provisions that pertain to a county with a hospital district, experience a natural disaster, or incur indigent defense expenses, among other considerations.
- The comptroller will disseminate new forms to assist all taxing entities in calculating a tax rate for 2020.

By Ronnie Keister, Lubbock County Tax Assessor-Collector

Amber Layton, Lubbock County Special Projects Coordinator, and Katy Estrada, TAC Legislative Manager, contributed to this article. Sources: 2019 TACA Texas Legislative Agenda and TAC 2019 Legislative Analysis Report

Tax assessor-collectors assess property for the purpose of taxation and collect taxes for the county and state, unless the responsibility is contracted out. Tax assessor-collectors are also agents of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.

The job of the tax assessor-collector has changed over time with most of the evolution of duties centering on the combination or separation of assessing and collecting taxes. Originally, the two functions of assessing property and collecting taxes were separate. Under the Texas Constitution of 1836, the sheriff acted as tax collector, while the governing body of the county employed a separate assessor. Subsequent changes modified the duties and structure of the office. Some of these changes instructed other county offices to become the tax assessor and/or collector.

A constitutional amendment in 1932 combined the office of assessor and collector to become the present office. Article VIII, Section 14 of the Texas Constitution states, “The qualified voters of each county shall elect an assessor-collector of taxes for the county, and this person will hold office for four years.” In counties under 10,000 in population, the sheriff acts as the assessor and collector of taxes unless the voters of the county approve the creation of a separate office of tax assessor-collector.

Article VIII also states, “The tax assessor-collector shall perform all the duties with respect to assessing property for the purpose of taxation and of collecting taxes, as may be prescribed by the Legislature.” Unless the function has been contracted away as provided under legislation passed in 1979, a major responsibility of the office includes the assessment (calculation) and collection of property taxes, also referred to as ad valorem taxes, for the county. The office may also enter into contract with other entities to collect their jurisdictions’ taxes. These other entities may include schools, cities, and special districts. A reasonable fee may be levied by the tax assessor-collector for collecting taxes for another entity, but this fee cannot exceed the actual collection cost.

The county tax assessor-collector is the designated voter registrar for Texas counties, unless the Commissioners Court has created the position of elections administrator to provide this function. Through mutual agreement, the tax assessor-collector may transfer this function to the county clerk, or agree to take the responsibility for elections in addition to voter registration. Voter registrar responsibilities include accepting applications for voter registration, issuing voter certificates, maintaining voter registration lists, verifying petitions for local option elections, and submitting required reports to the secretary of state’s office.

As an agent of the DMV, the office of tax assessor-collector is responsible for the registration, titling, and title transfer of all motor vehicles and trailers in the county. State tax on all automobiles sold in the county is collected by the tax assessor-collector.

Additionally, the county tax assessor-collector may be responsible for the collection of special fees imposed by the county and state on coin-operated vending machines and may act as an agent for the Parks and Wildlife Department to provide boat registration and titling services. County fees for these duties are set by statute.

A county tax assessor-collector is personally liable for the loss of public funds in the custody of the tax assessor-collector’s office, unless a district court declares the loss is due to a reason other than negligence or misconduct. Therefore, tax assessor-collectors must be bonded with the county and the state. Before beginning to perform the duties of office, a person elected or appointed as county tax assessor-collector must give a bond for county taxes to the County Commissioners Court in an amount equal to 10 percent of the total amount of the preceding tax year’s county taxes, not to exceed $100,000. The bond for state taxes is payable to the governor and must equal 5 percent of the net state collections from motor vehicle sales and use taxes and motor vehicle registration fees in the county during the preceding year. Each bond may not be less than $2,500 or more than $100,000. The Commissioners Court of a county with a population of 1.5 million or more may set the bond for county taxes in an amount greater than $100,000.

A county tax assessor-collector must successfully complete 20 hours of continuing education each year. The continuing education must include at least 10 hours of instruction on laws relating to the assessment and collection of property taxes for a county assessor-collector who assesses or collects property taxes. A county tax assessor-collector may carry forward from one 12-month period to the next up to 10 continuing education hours. In addition, a county tax assessor-collector must complete continuing education courses on ethics and on the constitutional and statutory duties of the county tax assessor-collector not later than the 90th day after the date on which the county assessor-collector first takes office.

The 85^th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 929, which provides for specific education mandates for the first year of an elected tax assessor-collector’s initial term of office. The mandate applies only to those who actively collect property taxes through their office. This one-time requirement of specific coursework will assure that newly elected officials have the education and training to enable them to correctly calculate property tax rates for the county and any other taxing jurisdiction they serve as well as have a good basic understanding of the property tax system and ethics that the office demands. HH – By Richard O. Avery, Ph.D., County Relations Officer, Texas Association of Counties, Former Director, V.G. Young Institute of County Government, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, The Texas A&M University System. Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector Kristeen Roe contributed to this article.

Search County Progress

Privacy Policy

County Progress

Categories