Exempting BPP would also reduce the cost to government and taxpayers associated with administering the property tax. The valuation of BPP by appraisal districts each year requires a substantial amount of resources, and those costs are ultimately born by the taxpayers served by the appraisal district.

John W. Diamond, Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Senior Fellow in Public Finance, Director, Center for Public Finance, Baker Institute Rice University

Careful considerations must be applied before embarking on any effort to replace local property taxes with another tax.

**UPDATED**Due to the recently elected Appraisal District Board of Directors and the actions they are taking in direct response to the election it is important to know the powers and limitations of the BOD.

School boards are required to adopt a budget and tax rate to finance that budget each year. As part of that process, the school board is required to calculate a “voter-approval tax rate” (previously known as the “rollback” rate).