All real, personal and mixed property held, owned or situated in the City of Hereford, 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 Hereford shall never be liable for any taxes other than the tax upon itself.
(A) 
The City Commission 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 of the City of Hereford now in existence or which may hereafter be created, an 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 individual or corporations of not exceeding a total of One Dollar and Fifty Cents ($1.50) on the One Hundred Dollar ($100.00) appraised valuation of said property. If, for any cause, the City Commission 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 Commission 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 collection for that year.
(B) 
The City Commission 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 Commission, may provide for split payments of city taxes, and may provide discounts for advance payment of taxes.
(C) 
The City Commission 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 Commission may, by ordinance, provide for the remission, discount, compromise or waiver of penalty to all persons legally owing any taxes which 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 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 nonresidents. 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 Hereford to render under oath to the Assessor of Taxes or such other person as may be provided for by ordinance at his office in said 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 Assessor or such other officer as aforesaid, acting in person or by deputy.
(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.
The City Commission 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 Hereford and which has not been rendered by the owner thereof each year upon a date to be specified by the City Commission by ordinance, by the Assessor or other officer designated for that purpose, which list of property so unrendered and assessed shall be placed upon the tax rolls of the City of Hereford and submitted along with the rendered roll to the Board of Equalization and be subject to the same tax levy as the rendered property within said City.
(A) 
The City Commission 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 making out tax lists and inventories, and fixing the duties and identifying the powers of the Assessor and Collector of Taxes, or such other officer as may be designated therefor, by the City Commission.
(B) 
All taxes shall be payable at the office of the Assessor and Collector or such other officer as the City Commission 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 article, shall be by the officer designated by the City Commission inventoried, assessed and rendered, inventoried and assessed by the owner thereof, and such officer, designated by the City Commission, shall have the right and it shall be his duty at any time to revise, correct and re-assess and properly describe any property incorrectly rendered or assessed or improperly described without the necessity of giving notice to owner thereof; provided however, that the valuation as fixed by the Board of Equalization 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 Hereford designated by the City Commission 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.
All ad valorem taxes due or to become due upon real, personal or mixed property, or upon franchises granted by the City of Hereford 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 Hereford 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 Hereford that are not paid within the time specified by the City Commission 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 a lien for taxes or upon which taxes are due shall take the property charged with the lien, and he cannot 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. The tax collector shall have power to seize and sell personal property in payment of all delinquent taxes assessed against the same.
(B) 
All suits for delinquent taxes to the City of Hereford shall be brought in the District Court of Deaf Smith 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 Hereford, as prescribed by the City Commission, it shall be the duty of the Assessor and Collector of taxes, or such other person or officer as may be designated by the City Commission, 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 as 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 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 Assessor and Collector or other officer 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 Hereford, and the City shall also be entitled to charge Two Dollars ($2.00) for advertising such 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.
(A) 
There shall be a Board of Equalization which shall be composed of three qualified tax paying and property owning citizens of the City of Hereford, who shall be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Commission, whose powers and duties shall be the same as is given to County Commissioners in the equalization of property values for State and County Taxation purposes.
(B) 
The members of said Board shall receive such compensation as may be provided for by ordinance of the City of Hereford.
(C) 
Said Board shall meet at the City Hall or such other place as may be designated in its order of appointment by the City Commission within ten (10) days after being notified by the Assessor of Taxes that the assessment rolls of the City of Hereford are completed and ready for its inspection, and it shall complete its work as expediently as possible and in no event delay the completion thereof more than sixty (60) days from its first meeting, and it shall file its final report with the Mayor and City Commission not later than fifteen (15) days after the completion of its work.
(D) 
In case of dissatisfaction with the final decision of the said Board of Equalization by any tax payer, an appeal from such decision may be made by such tax payer to the City Commission, provided such appeal is made within five (5) days after the tax rolls have been certified by the Board of Equalization to the City Commission, by written petition, specifically stating the part or parts of the valuation complained of. The City Commission shall dispose of all such appeals within thirty (30) days after the tax rolls of the City have been certified by the Board of Equalization. Any tax payer being dissatisfied with the decision of the City Commission, upon appeal, shall have the right to contest any such decision in any court of competent jurisdiction, but as a condition precedent to the exercise of such right of review or appeal to the courts, any such tax payer shall be required to give notice to the City Commission of his intention to file suit by filing with the City Secretary an exact copy of his petition within thirty (30) days after the final decision of the City Commission and such tax payer shall be required, as a further condition precedent, to pay said taxes assessed by the City and certified to by the Board of Equalization for the then current taxable year, and any subsequent years preceding final determination under protest, and, in the event of a final determination that the City Commission was in error in refusing the tax payer relief, in such event the City of Hereford shall be obligated to return to the tax payer that part of the taxes which are held to be erroneously assessed and collected.
The City Commission 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 nonpayment thereof, and to regulate the operation of any business, trade, calling or profession.
The City Commission shall have the power to contract with any attorney-at-law for the collection of taxes of the City.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Charter concerning Taxation and Finance, it shall be permissible for any action required or provided for herein on the part of the City and its personnel to be performed by means of the participation of and by the City of Hereford in actions and proceedings required or permitted by Laws of the State of Texas for the appraisal, assessment and/or collection of taxes jointly by two or more political subdivisions or entities of said State, including, but not limited to, the Property Tax Code (V.T.C.A., Tax Code § 1.01 et seq.), as from time to time amended.
(Ordinance 1114, sec. VI, adopted 3/2/81)