Unlike many of our county elected officials, nearly all of us have had some interaction with the County Tax Assessor-Collector. Whether we have renewed motor vehicle registrations or paid property taxes, we have had the duty of writing a check to this person. So, most of us have at least a general idea of what this office does. According to the Texas Association of Counties, the Tax Assessor-Collector has the following duties:

• Calculates property tax rates for the county.
• May collect taxes for cities, schools and other local taxing entities.
• Processes motor vehicle title transfers.
• Issues motor vehicle registration and licenses.
• May process boat titles and registrations.
• Register voters and may conduct elections. (NOTE: In Collin County, the Tax Assessor-Collector does not do this but instead sits on the board that hires our County Elections Administrator.)
• Collects various other fees for the state and county.
• While the Tax Assessor-Collector does have the ability to influence policy over real estate valuations, for the most part, this is an executive position tasked with carrying out policy and not a position that makes policy. If we were to design county government from scratch we might make this an appointed position or an executive staff position rather than an elected county office. But due to quirks of Texas state and county government that go back to post-civil war Reconstruction, it’s an elected office. And because it is an elected partisan office, we need to run someone.

The general background that would be helpful for this position would be accounting with management experience. Expertise in managing tax collections or other aspects of government finances, at city, county, or state level would be most desirable. This is a full-time position with a professional level salary.

If you’re interested in running for this office or know someone who might be a good candidate, please contact me (chair@collindemocrats.org) or John Shanks, our Executive Director (exec@collindemocrats.org).