Editorial Policy

1. Editorial Mission

county-cad.org/ exists to make the Texas property tax system navigable for non-experts. The audience is broad: a Texas homeowner reading the annual Notice of Appraised Value and figuring out whether to protest; a buyer researching a Texas property before making an offer; a senior Texan applying for the over-65 exemption; a disabled veteran claiming the 100% disabled veteran exemption; a rancher applying for 1-d-1 open-space valuation; a property tax consultant preparing ARB protests for clients. Every CAD guide is written so a non-expert can identify the right CAD, follow a clear walkthrough to perform a property search, find the right exemption form with its deadline, and reach the right desk on the first try.

2. The Manual-Verification Standard

Every Texas CAD, every property-search URL, every exemption procedure, every ARB protest deadline, every walkthrough on county-cad.org/ is verified by a human editor against the CAD's own published page and cross-checked against the Texas Comptroller PTAD reference. We do not auto-scrape. We do not pull from third-party data brokers. We do not generate content from a stale snapshot of the web. Every detail is human-verified before publication and re-verified on a quarterly cycle.

3. Independence

We are not affiliated with any Texas Central Appraisal District, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Property Tax Assistance Division (PTAD), the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts (TAAD), the Texas Association of Assessing Officers (TAAO), the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), the Appraisal Foundation (which administers USPAP), or any commercial property-records aggregator, title company, Texas property tax consulting firm, or real estate platform.

Our publication is privately operated and editorially independent. Decisions about what to cover, how to describe CAD procedures, and what to link to are made by editorial staff, not by advertisers, agencies, or commercial partners.

4. Six-Tier Source Hierarchy

Every Texas CAD guide is built using a tested source hierarchy. Higher-tier sources govern when sources conflict.

5. Eight-Step Verification Process

1. Identify the right authoritative source. The CAD’s own .gov / official portal, plus the Texas Comptroller PTAD, plus the relevant section of the Texas Property Tax Code.
2. Verify URLs are live. A human editor clicks every link before publication.
3. Walk through the property search. An editor performs a real property search on the CAD’s portal — by address, by owner name, by property ID — to confirm the step-by-step description matches the current interface.
4. Cross-check exemption procedures and deadlines. Against the CAD’s published exemption forms and Texas Comptroller PTAD reference materials.
5. Cross-check ARB protest procedure. Against the CAD’s protest forms, the Texas Property Tax Code §41 framework, and the current PTAD ARB Manual.
6. Verify the GIS / parcel-map URL where one exists. Most major-county Texas CADs have integrated GIS.
7. Dial-test the CAD’s main phone number. Quarterly cycle.
8. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews end-to-end, including a fresh check on the FCRA non-CRA notice and the “verify with CAD before relying” caveat.

6. Texas Legislative Cycle & Code Revisions

The Texas Legislature meets biennially in odd-numbered years (regular sessions typically January to May/June), with occasional special sessions called by the Governor. Property tax legislation passed during a session typically takes effect on September 1 of the same year (or, for major reforms, the next tax year). The Texas Property Tax Code is amended every session. Major recent reforms include the 2023 increases to the residence homestead exemption ($100,000 school district exemption) and the introduction of new circuit-breaker style limits. We track Texas property-tax legislation each session and update affected guides accordingly:

• Pre-session tracking of major property-tax bills filed
• Mid-session monitoring of property-tax bills moving through committee
• Post-session full review and content update for all enacted property-tax legislation
• Coordination with Texas Comptroller PTAD’s post-session guidance
• Watching for emergency rules or implementation guidance from the Comptroller

Even with this discipline, we cannot guarantee every detail is current at every moment. The CAD’s published page and the current Texas Property Tax Code are always the authoritative current reference. When we see that a CAD has updated something between our review cycles, we update on a 48-hour expedited path for actively-broken portal URLs.

7. Corrections

• Acknowledge within 1 business day. Every correction email gets a human acknowledgement.
• Verify within 7 business days. We re-check against the CAD’s own page and respond.
• Expedited path for actively-broken CAD portal URLs. Portal URLs that don’t work get a 48-hour target.
• Material corrections are noted. Where a substantive fact has changed (portal URL, exemption deadline, ARB procedure), the page is updated and the next review timestamp is reset.
• We do not retroactively edit history. If a page is materially wrong, we fix the current version and note the correction at the bottom for at least 30 days.

8. FCRA Editorial Line

Editorial content on county-cad.org/ is structured around the FCRA non-CRA position. We do not write content that frames Texas CAD property records as a substitute for a CRA-issued consumer report. We do not describe Texas property data as suitable for tenant screening, employment background checks, credit decisions, or insurance underwriting. We do not link to or partner with operations that market Texas property data for FCRA-permissible-purpose decisions. Every CAD guide includes the FCRA reminder. The full framework is on the Disclaimer and Sources & Methodology pages.

9. Conflicts of Interest

Editorial staff do not hold financial interests in: any third-party property-records aggregator, “people search” operation, tenant-screening service, title insurance company, or Texas property tax consulting firm whose listing or services we describe. Editorial staff currently employed by a Texas CAD, the Texas Comptroller PTAD, or TDLR are recused from editing pages covering that office. Editorial staff holding active TDLR Property Tax Consultant or Senior Property Tax Consultant licences disclose that fact when relevant.

10. No Paid Placement, No “Preferred Listings”

The order in which CADs, professional services, or related organisations appear in any guide on the site is editorial — alphabetical, geographic, or by category — and does not imply quality, recommendation, or preference. We do not accept payment for inclusion in any guide. We do not accept payment for higher placement. We do not accept “sponsored” content on CAD guides. We specifically do not accept advertising from operations that market Texas property records for FCRA-permissible-purpose decisions.

11. AI & Automation Policy

We use software tools for spell-check, grammar review, and routine drafting assistance — like most modern publications. However, no editorial fact, URL, exemption deadline, ARB procedure, address, phone number, or walkthrough step on county-cad.org/ is published from AI without human verification against the CAD's own published page. Every page passes through human editorial review, including the eight-step verification process. We do not auto-generate or auto-publish CAD guides.

12. Commercial Position

The site is funded by display advertising. The official CAD link always comes first on every page, before any commercial reference. We do not take advertising from:

• Operations marketing Texas property records for FCRA-permissible-purpose decisions (tenant screening, employment, credit, insurance)
• “People search” operations that aggregate public records into searchable consumer profiles
• Operations charging for access to records that the CAD provides free
• Operations misrepresenting themselves as official CADs or Texas authorities
• Unlicensed property tax representation services (Texas requires TDLR licensure for property tax consultants under Tex. Occ. Code Ch. 1152)
• Title-insurance or title-search operations not licensed in Texas
• Foreclosure-list and tax-sale-list aggregators that misrepresent the official Texas tax-sale process

13. Editorial Staff & Bylines

county-cad.org/ operates under a unified editorial byline ("county-cad.org/ Editorial") because CAD guides are produced and reviewed by multiple editors. For specific source attribution on any factual statement, see the page's footnotes or contact us.