2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB148

HB148 creates an annual training requirement for appraisal-district directors in counties with 75,000 or more residents.

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Official caption: Relating to the qualification of candidates for, and the training and education of members of, the board of directors of an appraisal district.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Turner, Capriglione, Kerwin, Cook, Collier. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

HB148 creates an annual training requirement for appraisal-district directors in counties with 75,000 or more residents.
Training covers the different appraisal officials’ roles, the comptroller’s role, independence from political pressure, fair public service, budgeting and spending controls, procurement and conflicts of interest, open-government and administrative-procedure laws, professional appraisal ethics, and regulated property-tax professions.
A separate provision applies to candidates for appointed or elected appraisal-board positions without the 75,000-person limitation.
The law took effect September 1, 2025, but both new provisions apply only to people appointed or elected to terms beginning January 1, 2026, or later.

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What does it do?

HB148 creates an annual training requirement for appraisal-district directors in counties with 75,000 or more residents. Covered members must successfully complete training before each anniversary of taking office. The provider must be an accredited higher-education institution or an institution associated with one, such as the V. G. Young Institute of County Government. Directors file their completion certificates with the appraisal district, which supplies the certificates to the comptroller during its district reviews. Final law, Section 1.

Training covers the different appraisal officials’ roles, the comptroller’s role, independence from political pressure, fair public service, budgeting and spending controls, procurement and conflicts of interest, open-government and administrative-procedure laws, professional appraisal ethics, and regulated property-tax professions. If the district has contracted to assess or collect taxes, training must include at least eight hours on the laws governing those functions. The final law does not prescribe a general four-hour minimum for every director. Missing required training on time becomes “incompetency” for purposes of the statutory removal process; it is not an automatic vacancy. Final law, Section 1; Local Government Code Chapter 87, removal procedure.

A separate provision applies to candidates for appointed or elected appraisal-board positions without the 75,000-person limitation. Before appointment—or before filing an application for an elected place on the ballot—the person must sign the prescribed acknowledgment and submit it to the chief appraiser. The statement lists 24 responsibilities, including hiring the chief appraiser, budgets, public access and complaints, reappraisal planning, audits, contracts, records and specified appointments. It also makes clear that the board does not appraise individual properties, hear individual valuation reviews or set tax rates. This is an acknowledgment of duties, not a transfer of appraisal or rate-setting power to directors. Final law, Section 2.

The law took effect September 1, 2025, but both new provisions apply only to people appointed or elected to terms beginning January 1, 2026, or later. The annual training deadline is tied to taking office, not a single statewide calendar deadline. Final law, Sections 3–4; official history.

What changed along the way?

The introduced bill proposed comptroller-run training of at least four hours before each term, a fee capped at $50, online materials and a ban on participating in board meetings before completing the course. The House committee replaced that system with annual higher-education-provided training, a detailed curriculum, certificates and removal grounds. The original four-hour rule, $50 fee cap and pre-course meeting prohibition did not survive. The House passed the committee approach without a floor amendment. Introduced text; House committee text; House-passed text.

The Senate committee retained the House text. Senator Bettencourt’s adopted floor amendment limited the training section to counties with at least 75,000 people and renumbered its subsections. It did not place that population limit on the separate acknowledgment section. The House concurred on May 23, 2025; the governor signed June 20. Senate committee text; full Senate amendment; amendment index.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Taxpayers could benefit from directors who better understand their powers, conflicts of interest and public-service duties. Clearer role boundaries may also reduce misplaced expectations that directors can lower an individual appraisal or tax rate. Directors and districts face training time, possible fees or travel costs, and certificate administration; accredited education providers may receive additional demand. Smaller counties are outside this new annual-training requirement, but their appointed candidates still face the acknowledgment requirement for covered terms.

The Legislative Budget Board anticipated no significant fiscal impact on the state or local governments. Its final note nevertheless repeats a four-hour training minimum that was in the introduced proposal but not the enrolled law. The explanation follows the final statutory text: the explicit minimum is eight hours on assessment/collection laws for directors of districts performing those contracted functions. The fiscal estimate is not a promise of free training or quantified taxpayer savings. Final fiscal note; final law.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.