Attorney General Opinion GA-0681

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT November 6,2008 The Honorable Elton R. Mathis Waller County Criminal District Attorney 846 Sixth Street, Suite #1 Hempstead, Texas 77445 Dear Mr. Mathis: Opinion No. GA-0681 Re: Whether the Waller County Appraisal District Office must be physically located within the boundaries of Waller County (RQ-0715-GA) The office of the Waller County Appraisal District (the "Appraisal District") is located in Fort Bend County.! You ask whether the Appraisal District's office must be physically located in Waller County, "and if so, by what time period should the office be moved to Waller County." Request Letter, supra note 1, at 1. Tax Code section 6.05(a) requires that, "[e]xcept as authorized by [s]ubsection (b) ofthis section, each appraisal district" must "establish an appraisal office." TEx. TAXCODEANN. §6.05(a) (Vernon 2008). Further, "[t]he appraisal office must be located in the county for which the district is established," although the appraisal district "may establish branch appraisal offices outside the county." Id; see also id §6.01(a) (establishing an appraisal district in each county). Section 6.05(b) excepts from subsection (a)'s requirements the board of directors of an appraisal district that contracts "with an appraisal office in another district ... to perform the duties ofthe appraisal office for the district." Id. § 6.05(b). You do not indicatethatthe Appraisal District's boardofdirectors has entered a contractwith an appraisal office in another district to perform appraisal duties for the district; consequently, the Appraisal District is not excepted from the requirement in section 6.05(a) that its primary office be located in Waller County. And you do not indicate that the office located in Fort Bend County is a branch office. We must conclude, therefore, that the Appraisal District's primary office must be located in Waller County. You then ask how soon the Appraisal District must move its office to Waller County. Section 6.05(a) is mandatory and does not include a grace period. Thus, the Appraisal District has lSee Letter from Honorable Elton R. Mathis, Waller County Criminal District Attorney, to Honorable Greg Abbott, Attorney General of Texas, at 1 (May 15, 2008) (on file with the Opinion Committee, also available at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov) [hereinafter Request Letter]. The Honorable Elton R. Mathis - Page 2 (GA-0681) an existing, mandatory duty to locate its primary office in Waller County, and until it does so, the location ofthe Appraisal District's primary office will not comply with section 6.05(a). See Tex. Att'yGen. Ope No. JM-72 (1983) at2 (concluding, based upon a general statement aboutthe powers of quasi municipal corporations and other non-municipal political subdivisions in Tri-City Fresh Water Supply Dist. No.2 v. Mann, 142 S.W.2d 945, 948 (Tex. 1940), that an appraisal district may exercise only those powers that are expressly delegated to it by the constitution or statutes and those necessarily implied from such express powers). The Honorable Elton R. Mathis - Page 3 (GA-0681) SUMMARY Under Tax Code section 6.05, an appraisal district's office must be located withinthe county for whichthe district is established, unless (1) the office is a branch office or (2) the appraisal district has entered an interlocal contract with an appraisal office in another district to perform appraisal duties for the district. In the absence of eitherofthesetwo exceptions, the Waller CountyAppraisal District's primary office must be located in Waller County. Until the primary office is located in Waller County, the Appraisal District will not comply with section 6.05. KENT C. SULLIVAN First Assistant Attorney General ANDREW WEBER Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel NANCY S. FULLER Chair, Opinion Committee Kymberly K. Oltrogge Assistant Attorney General, Opinion Committee