Relating to evidence and burdens of proof in property tax assessment protests and appeals and including retroactive applicability provisions

Under current law, for assessment years on or after January 1, 2018, the burden of proof shall be upon any complainant attacking a property valuation as excessive, inadequate, inequitable, or capricious. When the complainant offers competent evidence that the market value of the property is different than the market value determined by the assessor, the burden of proof thereafter shall be upon the officials or persons seeking to uphold such valuation to be assessed. This bill provides that, for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, when the complainant offers evidence that the market value of the property is different than the market value determined by the assessor, the burden of proof shall be upon the officials or persons seeking to uphold such valuation to be assessed. Under current law, when a property owner or aggrieved taxpayer files an assessment protest, the protest must be confined to certain grounds. One such ground is that the assessment is not equitable as compared with assessments of other like property in the taxing district. _____ that an assessment shall not be deemed equitable if the appraised value of the property exceeds the median appraised value of a reasonable number of similar and comparable properties in the same geographical area. The bill applies retroactively to January 1, 2026, for assessment years beginning on or after that date.