| Mr. Mike Gage, Chairman |
| Mr. Edward Wilkie |
| Mr. Jeffrey Saunders |
| Mr. Todd McGraw |
| Mr. Andrew Lewis |
Effective August 28, 1989, Sec. 6.12, Property Tax Code, requires chief appraisers to appoint an agricultural advisory board. The legislature created this advisory board to help improve communications between the farming and ranching community and the appraisal district.
The agricultural advisory board must have at least three members. These members must be appointed by the chief appraiser with the advice and consent of the board of directors. The chief appraiser may appoint more than three members, again with the advice of his board of directors. The law specifies the qualifications of the three required members.
The chief appraiser may not appoint an appraisal district officer or employee to serve on the board. When making appointments to the board, the chief appraiser should try to achieve a balanced representation of agricultural or timber land owners. Some factors the chief appraiser should consider are: geographical differences in the area, different types of agricultural operations in the area, and different sizes of agricultural and timber operations in the area.
The more representative of the community’s diversity the board is, the more likely the chief appraiser is to get useful advice and assistance.
Advisory board members serve for two-year staggered terms.
The chief appraiser calls advisory board meetings and he must call a meeting at least one time a year.
Under the Property Tax code, the board’s function is to advise the chief appraiser on major issues dealing with agricultural and timber appraisal-net to land, degree of intensity standards, and other agricultural use and appraisal issues.
As an advisory body, the board has no decision in making authority or responsibility. The chief appraiser and the appraisal review board have statutory and legal responsibility to set values and make decisions on qualification for agricultural appraisal-this responsibility cannot legally be delegated to any other group or person not directly under the chief appraiser’s authority. The agricultural advisory board should not become involved in matters dealing with individual properties or in approving applications for agricultural appraisal.