We recommend Hanna, Wang and Lavine for Travis Central Appraisal District board | Editorial

If you own Austin property, you may have recently received a valuation from the Travis Central Appraisal District (TCAD). Want to appeal? If so, you have a stake in May's important and first-ever election for three posts on TCAD’s Board of Directors. There’s a second critical reason for taxpayers to vote in this race. The board oversees the property tax appraisals system. Accurate appraisals are key to funding public schools, parks, libraries and other government services your taxes pay for.

For this reason, we recommend electing Jett Hanna, Shenghao 'Daniel' Wang and Dick Lavine to the TCAD board in the May 4 elections. All have years of experience either in the property appraisal process or in public policy, and all are committed to fairness in the appraisal system. Each candidate warns about the dangers of political manipulation in a process that should be strictly data-based.

While all are Democrats, each has said he places accuracy above all else in the appraisal process, rejecting political agendas.

Early voting continues through Tuesday, April 30 and the election is May 4.

TCAD appraisals are key. But governments set the actual tax rate

Elections to the TCAD board might strike some as unimportant. That is hardly the case.

Though the board is obscure to many, it plays a critical role in Texas' property tax system. The three candidates who will be elected to the board will be entrusted to safeguard the fairness of the property appraisal system. They will also shape the funding of public services, including Austin schools.

TCAD’s appraisals are used to help determine property tax bills. These in turn allow local governments to set budgets for public services such as schools. TCAD’s board of directors hires its chief appraiser, approves its budget, and, starting in 2025, will appoint the Appraisal Review Board – the volunteers who hear property valuation protests.

While TCAD appraisals inform the tax process, the district has no role in setting tax rates. Those are set by local taxing authorities such as school boards and city councils.

From 1979 until this year, all members of TCAD’s board of directors were appointed. Last year, however, Republican lawmakers advocating lower taxes passed the far-reaching Senate Bill 2, which requires three members of the current nine-member board to be elected.

Jett Hanna for Place 1

An attorney with a background in commercial real estate law, Hanna has experience in the appraisal district board's work, having served on it from 1988 to 1990. He is a member of the Texas Supreme Court Professional Ethics Committee.

Hanna faces one opponent, former Austin City Council member Don Zimmerman, who declined to speak to the Editorial Board.

Although the appraisal process is technical in nature, Hanna said ideology still can distort outcomes. Because two out of three elected board members must approve appointments, two could stall the taxation process, he said.

“It’s important that we fight the battles in the right places,” Hanna told the Editorial Board. “If you try to elect people with a certain angle on taxation, then you have the potential for that person appointing people who have the same philosophy.”

Shenghao “Daniel” Wang for Place 2

A lawyer specializing in electricity regulation, Wang's first-generation parents moved from an apartment without furniture to home ownership. With a math degree from MIT, Wang enrolled in Harvard Law School. His goal, he said, was to gain skills to help the community.

Wang said he prioritizes a fair-minded board of directors. Politicization, he said, could gravely harm schools and other tax-dependent services. “The way the law was written,” he said, “created a lot of opportunity for elected TCAD members to really mess with the process underlying funding for public services.”

Wang’s opponents are Jonathan Craig Patschke, a software developer and treasurer of the Travis County Libertarian Party, and Matt Mackowiak, Travis County Republican Party Chairman and a Republican consultant. Both said they would keep politics out of the TCAD system. But Wang’s outstanding legal, mathematical and regulatory sector experience and his community commitment qualify him uniquely in our view.

Dick Lavine for Place 3

It is hard to envision a candidate better suited for this post than Lavine. He has a law degree and is a certified Chartered Financial Analyst. He served on TCAD's board of directors for 22 years and worked in research at the Legislature for nearly three decades, with the policy nonprofit Every Texan.

His opponent, Bill May, who is retired from the construction business, did not return emails from the Statesman Editorial Board.

Lavine told the Editorial Board his goal is to preserve the district’s integrity from political interference and protect its role in the tax system. He said he's most concerned about the potential for manipulation of review board appointments through veto by elected board members.

The review process, he said, “is technical, but it’s not physics.” For accurate, consistent funding for schools and other public services, we believe, Lavine will be a dedicated champion.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Our endorsements for Travis Central Appraisal District board