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: Whetherthe Waller County Appraisal District

Office must be physically located within the

boundaries ofWaller County (RQ-0715-GA)

The office ofthe 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. TAX CODEANN. § 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 indicate that the Appraisal District's board ofdirectors 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 about the 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 within the county for which the 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

either ofthese two exceptions, the WallerCountyAppraisal 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