The Tarrant Appraisal District’s chief appraiser told his board June 10 that the county’s freeze on home values has made its tax roll “less uniform and more regressive,” an admission that carries statewide weight as Gov. Greg Abbott campaigns on a property tax overhaul built on less frequent appraisals.
The district froze residential values at 2024 levels under a plan that reappraises homes every two years and caps increases at 5% per cycle. District data published by tax consultant Chandler Crouch showed more than 195,000 homeowners would have received lower tax bills this year had their homes been reappraised in 2025. Because of the freeze, those values stay fixed until 2027.
Chief appraiser Joe Don Bobbitt confirmed the pattern at the board’s June 10 meeting but argued homestead exemption caps shielded about 60,000 of those households, putting the number of overvalued homes closer to 130,000. The board took no action.
“The board needs to focus less on whether the freeze was popular, and more on whether it produced accurate, equal and uniform values for all our taxpayers,” board member Wendy Burgess said, according to the Fort Worth Report. Board member Eric Morris countered that a “supermajority” of homeowners benefited and that the overtaxed could protest. Crouch’s analysis, reported by the Dallas Express, found 64.7% of homeowners benefited while 31.7% were harmed, with larger advantages flowing to higher-value homes.
The district’s lawyer, Matthew Tepper, is reviewing whether the frozen roll complies with the Texas Constitution’s equal and uniform taxation requirement. State law requires districts to reappraise all property at least once every three years. TAD has defended the plan, saying in a 2025 statement that the freeze “performed exactly as intended.”
The stakes extend beyond Tarrant County. Abbott’s five-point plan, pitched July 1, would cap appraisal increases at 3% and move Texas toward appraisals every five years — a longer freeze than the one Tarrant’s appraiser now calls regressive. Board chairman Rick Barnes told the June meeting he had spoken with acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who Barnes said is advising the governor’s office to require five-year residential reappraisals statewide. The comptroller’s office did not confirm the claim, and Hancock announced July 1 he will step down this month.
Tarrant adopted the freeze in 2024 after voters elected three board members — the first chosen by voters rather than taxing entities, as The Texas Dispatch previously reported — on a platform of capped and less frequent appraisals. Filing for the next elected board terms opens July 18.
Two deadlines will force the question. Appraisal rolls must be certified by about July 25, locking in this year’s values. And under Tax Code Section 6.05, the board must hold hearings and approve its 2027–28 reappraisal plan by Sept. 15 — the vote that will decide whether the freeze continues.