February 15, 2011

Mr. Michael B. Gary

Assistant General Counsel

Harris County Appraisal District

P.O. Box 920975

Houston, Texas 77292-0975

OR2011-02302

Dear Mr. Gary:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 409062 (HCAD Ref. # 10-135).

The Harris County Appraisal District (the "district") received a request for "House Bill 201 evidence" pertaining to a specified account number for tax year 2007. You claim that the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.149 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽²⁾

Section 552.149 of the Government Code provides, in relevant part:

(a) Information relating to real property sales prices, descriptions, characteristics, and other related information received from a private entity by the comptroller or the chief appraiser of an appraisal district under Chapter 6, Tax Code, is excepted from the requirements of [the Act].

(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the property owner or the owner's agent may, on request, obtain from the chief appraiser of the applicable appraisal district a copy of each item of information described by Section 41.461(a)(2), Tax Code, and a copy of each item of information that the chief appraiser took into consideration but does not plan to introduce at the hearing on the protest. In addition, the property owner or agent may, on request, obtain from the chief appraiser comparable sales data from a reasonable number of sales that is relevant to any matter to be determined by the appraisal review board at the hearing on the property owner's protest. Information obtained under this subsection:

(1) remains confidential in the possession of the property owner or agent; and

(2) may not be disclosed or used for any purpose except as evidence or argument at the hearing on the protest.

Gov't Code § 552.149(a), (b). The 81st Texas Legislature amended section 552.149 to limit the applicability of sections 552.149(a) and (b) to those counties having a population of 20,000 or more. See id. § 552.149(e). We note that Harris County has a population of 20,000 or more. The legislative history of the statutory predecessor to section 552.149 indicates it was enacted as a result of the issuance of several open records rulings of this office in which we ruled information provided by multiple listing services to appraisal districts under confidentiality agreements is subject to required public disclosure under the Act. House Comm. on State Affairs, Bill Analysis, Tex. Comm. Substitute H.B. 2188, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007). Because of these rulings, many multiple listing services stopped providing sales information to appraisal districts. The bill analysis of House Bill 2188 states the purpose of this statute is to allow the relationships between multiple listing services and appraisal districts to continue. House Comm. on State Affairs, Bill Analysis, Tex. Comm. Substitute H.B. 2188, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007). You indicate, and the submitted documents reflect, that the information at issue relates to real property sales and was provided to the district by private entities. You state that the requestor has not represented that he is an owner of any property at issue or that he is the agent of such an owner. Based on this representation, we find the submitted information must be withheld under section 552.149(a) of the Government Code.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Tamara H. Holland

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

THH/tf

Ref: ID# 409062

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Although you initially raised section 552.110 of the Government Code, we note that, in communications with our office, you have withdrawn this exception. Additionally, although you also initially raised section 552.101 of the Government Code, you have not submitted arguments explaining how this exception applies to the submitted information. Therefore, we presume that you also have withdrawn this exception. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301, .302.

2. We assume that the "representative sample" of information submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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