The Hemphill County Appraisal District’s Notices of Appraised Value will soon be mailed to Hemphill County property owners. The notices will focus on value only, and the tax statement with your total amount due will be mailed in October. As always, please check your notice to ensure that correct exemptions are shown and that your owner information is accurate, including physical and mailing addresses. We make every effort for accuracy in the CAD office and will provide assistance if you need it. Please stop by.

The appraisal district appraises property located in the county, while local taxing units set the tax rates. The governing body of each unit decides whether property tax rates increase. The appraisal district only determines your property’s value. The taxing units will set tax rates later this year. The Texas State Comptroller Auditor performs a Property Value Study (PVS) every other year that checks local sales in Hemphill County and compares those sales to appraisal district values. If the appraisal district values are not within 0.5% variance of the sales ratio the appraisal district will fail the Study and fall out of Compliance with the State. If the Appraisal District falls out, the school districts in Hemphill County will not receive their State funding. It is imperative to keep the property values within this variance in our county to retain “local” value. Demand for housing has increased in Hemphill CAD stemming from the Smokehouse Creek fire combined with data centers being built in the area.  The market (house sales) has dramatically pushed values being reported to the State up.  This has tremendously increased the property value in Hemphill County and has forced a schedule adjustment to be made across the board on the 2026 property values.

When the taxpayer looks at the value proposed by the appraisal district, they should ask themselves if their property would likely sell for that amount. If not, they should file a protest form included in the notice and return it to the Appraisal District office prior to the indicated deadline. The Hemphill CAD Chief Appraiser and the Field Appraisers will meet with taxpayers informally and discuss the appraisal information with the person protesting. If the appraisal district has misjudged the value, we will offer a settlement which may be accepted by the owner, or it can be appealed to a formal hearing with the Appraisal Review Board (ARB). The Appraisal Review Board are a group of local citizens who live in the county and have been appointed by the local administrative District Judge. They will listen to the evidence provided by both parties and make a decision based on the preponderance of the evidence presented. The taxpayer may appeal the findings of the ARB to District Court or arbitration. To the meeting, the owner should bring in evidence that might support a change in value, such as: pictures of issues, estimates of costs to cure problems or closing statements for recently purchased property.

The Comptroller’s publication, Taxpayer Assistance Pamphlet, explains in detail how to protest your property appraisal, what issues the ARB can consider and what to expect during a protest hearing. It also discusses the function of a taxpayer liaison officer, the option to request limited binding arbitration to compel the ARB or chief appraiser to comply with a procedural requirement and the options of taking your case to district court, the State Office of Administrative Hearings or regular binding arbitration if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your ARB hearing. The Taxpayer Assistance Pamphlet is available from the Hemphill County Appraisal District at 102 North 5th Street, Canadian, TX. The publication is also available on the Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division’s website at comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/ property-tax/.

“The Appraisal District would like to ensure the community that we constantly strive to provide fair, equitable appraisals that produce a tax base for local taxing entities. Once the entity’s annually adopted tax rate is applied to the taxable values within its jurisdiction, the resulting tax levy provides operational revenue for the county, city, hospital, water and school districts,” states Chief Appraiser Pam Scates.

Property owners with questions regarding value or the protest process are urged to contact the office at (806) 323-8022, we are here to help. Online protests are available on our webpage at www.hemphillcad.com and you can follow the distinct instructions from your notice of appraised value that you receive in the mail.