All real, personal and mixed property held, owned or situated in the City of Levelland, which is not exempt by the Constitution or general laws of the State of Texas, shall be liable for all taxes due by the owner thereof, including taxes on real estate, franchises, personal and mixed property, except that the homestead of any person within the City of Levelland shall never be liable for any taxes other than the tax upon itself.
(A) 
The City Council shall have the power and it is hereby authorized and made its duty to levy annually for general purposes and for the purpose of paying interest and providing the sinking fund on the bonded indebtedness on the City of Levelland now in existence or which may hereafter be created, and ad valorem tax on all real, personal or mixed property within the territorial limits of said City, and upon all franchises granted by the City to any individuals or corporations of not exceeding a total of Two Dollars ($2.00) on the One Hundred Dollar ($100.00) appraised valuation of said property. If, for any cause, the City Council shall fail, neglect or refuse to pass a tax ordinance for any one year, levying taxes for that year, then and in that event the tax levying ordinance for the year for which the City Council failed, neglected or refused to pass such ordinance, and the failure to do so pass such ordinance for any year shall in no wise invalidate the tax collections for that year.
(B) 
The City Council may determine and provide when taxes shall be due and payable by corporations or individuals and all persons owning property. It shall have the right to fix the time and terms of payment of taxes, prescribe penalties for the non-payment thereof upon the expiration of the time fixed by said Council, may provide for split payments of city taxes, and may provide discounts for advance payment of taxes.
(C) 
The City Council or any other official of the City shall never extend the time for the payment of taxes or remit, discount or compromise any tax legally due the city, nor waive the penalty that may be due thereon to any person, but the City Council may, by ordinance, provide for the remission, discount, compromise or waiver or penalty to all persons legally owing any taxes when such remission, discount, compromise or waiver of penalty is for any particular or specified year or years and applies equally to all persons, firms or corporations owing taxes to the City for such year or years; provided, however, that this provision shall not prevent the compromise of any tax suit.
The tax levied by the City is hereby declared to be a lien, charge or encumbrance upon the property upon which the tax is due, which lien, charge or encumbrance the City is entitled to enforce and foreclose in any court having jurisdiction over the same, and the lien, charge and encumbrance on the property in favor of the City for the amount of the tax due on such property is such as to give the State Courts jurisdiction to enforce and foreclose said lien on the property on which the tax is due, not only as against any resident of this State or person whose residence is unknown, but also as against the unknown heirs of any person who owns the property upon which the tax is due and also as against non-residents. All taxes upon real estate shall especially be a lien and a charge upon the property upon which the taxes are due, which lien may be foreclosed in any court having jurisdiction.
(A) 
It shall be the duty of every owner of property within the City of Levelland to render under oath to the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city annually within the time prescribed by ordinance of said City a full and complete inventory of all property so owned or held by him, whether real, personal or mixed, and to take and subscribe to an oath to the correctness of such inventory, which oath may be administered by the person or authorized employee of the entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city.
(B) 
The definition of property and terms as defined by the general law of the State under the head of Taxation shall apply to the taxation of property in this City.
(As amended 5/3/2025)
The City Council shall provide by ordinance for the listing and valuation of all property, real, personal and mixed, situated, owned or held within the City Limits of Levelland and which has not been rendered by the owner thereof each year upon a date to be specified by the City Council by ordinance, by the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city, which list of property so unrendered and assessed shall be placed upon the tax rolls of the City of Levelland and submitted along with the rendered rolls to the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city and be subject to the same tax levy as the rendered property within said City.
(As amended 5/3/2025)
(A) 
The City Council shall have full power, by ordinance, to provide for the prompt collection of all taxes levied, assessed and due or becoming due to said City and prescribe where property shall be assessed or rendered for taxes and when the taxes thereon shall become due and payable and to that end may and shall pass all ordinances and make all such provisions as may be necessary for levying, imposing, assessing and collecting said taxes, regulate the methods of make out tax lists and inventories, and fixing the duties and identifying the powers of the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city.
(B) 
All taxes shall be payable at the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city, or such other officer as the City Council may prescribe, and no demand for payment thereof shall be requisite or necessary to the enforcement of the collection thereof, nor for the collection of any taxes due before the passage of this Article.
(C) 
All property which the owner thereof may have failed or refused to inventory, assess or render for taxation for years prior to the passage of this act, shall be by the officer designated by the City Council inventoried, assessed and rendered for taxes for the year or years for which the same was not so rendered, inventoried and assessed by the owner thereof, and such officer, designated by the City Council, shall have the right and it shall be his duty at any time to revise, correct and reassess and properly describe any property incorrectly rendered or assessed or improperly described, without the necessity of giving notice to the owner thereof; provided, however, that the valuation as fixed by the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city shall not be changed and such inventory and assessment, when revised and worked over, shall be as valid and effective as if on such assessment sheets and tax rolls and as if regularly and duly rendered and assessed by the owner for the year for which rendered, assessed and inventoried, as above provided for, by the Officer of the City of Levelland, designated by the City Council and said tax rolls and assessment sheets shall be prima facie evidence that said property was regularly and duly rendered, inventoried, assessed and properly described in all respects as if done duly and regularly by the owner in the first instance.
(As amended 5/3/2025)
All ad valorem taxes due or to become due upon real, personal or mixed property, or upon franchises granted by the City of Levelland to individuals or corporations, and all license taxes, occupation taxes, permit fees, fines, forfeitures, penalties and other amounts of taxes accruing to the City of Levelland shall be collectible and payable only in current money of the United States.
(A) 
All ad valorem taxes due or to become due to the City of Levelland that are not paid within the time specified by the City Council in the ordinance providing the date of payment of said taxes shall be declared delinquent and be subject to the penalties prescribed by ordinance from time to time and may be collected by suits from delinquents and foreclosure of the lien thereon may be had in any court having jurisdiction of the same, and any person who shall purchase or shall have purchased property encumbered by lien for taxes or upon which taxes are due shall be deemed as to such taxes a delinquent tax payer and such purchasers shall take the property charged with the line, and he can not interpose any defense which the person or corporation owning the property at the time of the assessment of said taxes so delinquent might not have interposed had he or it continued to be owner, except that no personal judgment shall be rendered for same against such a purchaser.
(B) 
All suits for delinquent taxes to the City of Levelland shall be brought in the District Court of Hockley County, Texas, in accordance with the general laws of the State of Texas relative to the collection of delinquent state and county ad valorem taxes.
Immediately after the end of the fiscal year of the City of Levelland, as prescribed by the City Council, it shall be the duty of the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city, to prepare a roll to be designated as the Delinquent Roll, containing the description of all property described in the assessment rolls of the fiscal year just preceding, together with the taxes due thereon and which said taxes have not been paid, and said roll, when prepared, shall be certified to by the Officer preparing same to be correct and shall be prima facie evidence of the statement made therein that all of the prerequisites and requirements of law as to levying of taxes and assessing and rendering property therefor and also to all other matters having been complied with, and the City is entitled to One Dollar ($1.00) on each tract of land in said delinquent roll set forth, which shall be taxed against the delinquent tax payer of the property and against the property upon which the tax is due and in case of suit, to be taxed as a charge against said property, and the Collector of Taxes [the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city] shall not issue any receipts to any delinquent tax payer unless said One Dollar ($1.00) has been paid. Said delinquent roll shall be finished and said statement furnished by the person or entity performing the functions of tax assessor and collector for the city not later than thirty (30) days after the end of each fiscal year. Said delinquent roll shall be published not later than ninety (90) days after the end of each fiscal year or as soon as possible thereafter once each week for four (4) consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in the City of Levelland, and the City shall also be entitled to charge Two Dollars ($2.00) for advertising each tract of land separately assessed which shall be taxed as a charge against the property on which the tax is due, and no receipt to any delinquent tax payer shall be issued until such cost of advertising has been paid; provided that such publication shall not be a condition precedent to bringing suit on such taxes and for the foreclosure of the tax lien of the City against such property.
(As amended 5/3/2025)
[1]
Editor’s note–Former article VI, § IX pertaining to the board of equalization and deriving from the original Charter adopted 1/18/1949, was repealed on 5/3/2025.
The City Council shall have the power to levy and collect taxes upon all trades, professions, callings or other businesses carried on to the full extent permitted by the general laws of the State of Texas to prescribe penalties for non-payment thereof, and to regulate the operation of any business, trade, calling or profession.