TAX BOARDS. The State Tax Board, usually called the Intangible Tax Board, was established by the legislature in 1905 and was composed of the comptroller of public accounts, the secretary of state, and the attorney general, serving ex officio. The chief function of the board was to determine the value of the intangible assets of railroads, oil pipe line companies, and certain motor bus companies and to apportion their assets for the purpose of taxation among the various counties in which the companies operated or were situated. The Board to Calculate the Ad Valorem Tax Rate, ordinarily called the automatic tax board, was established by the legislature in 1907. It was composed of the governor, comptroller, and treasurer, serving ex officio. It was the duty of the board to calculate the ad valorem rate of taxes (general property tax) for the state and the public free schools. By 1973 the State Tax Board (intangible) and the Tax Board to Calculate Ad Valorem Tax Rate had been consolidated as the State Tax Board. In 1979 the legislature established the State Property Tax Board, which assumed the duties of the School Tax Assessment Practices Board (established in 1977) and the Ad Valorem Tax Division of the State Comptrollers Office. However in 1991 the Comptroller of Public Accounts assumed the duties of the State Property Tax Board and became the Property Tax Division.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Billy C. Hamilton, ed., Rethinking Texas Taxes: Final Report of the Select Committee on Tax Equity, Vol. 2 (Austin: Texas House of Representatives, 1989). Practicing Texas Politics, 8th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992). Dick Smith, A Layman's Guide to the Texas State Administrative Agencies (Austin: Bureau of Municipal Research, University of Texas, 1945).

Dick Smith