Howard CAD 2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan: Mineral Property Valuation Section Locator

Direct answer for mineral owners

Howard CAD’s official Reports and Plans page links a 2025-2026 reappraisal-plan Word file. In the recorded file, the MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION section says producing oil and gas properties are valued each year under Tax Code Section 23.175 and names Thomas Y. Pickett Appraisal Group as contracted by the Howard County Board of Directors. A controlled local conversion places the section on rendered page 17, but that page number is not a stable locator across Word renderers.

Key takeaways for mineral owners

• Start at the official Howard CAD Reports and Plans page and follow its 2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan link.
• The linked source is a legacy Microsoft Compound File Binary Word document, not a PDF.
• The recorded file contains a MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION section that references Tax Code Section 23.175 and names a contractor in the plan text.
• A controlled LibreOffice conversion placed the section on rendered page 17 of 43; the source metadata reported 42 pages, so the page number is renderer-dependent.
• The embedded title says ECTOR COUNTY APPRAISAL DISTRICT even though Howard CAD hosts the file and its visible content repeatedly names Howard; this article records the discrepancy without assigning a cause.

Plan-source and rendering boundary. This page records one Howard CAD-hosted Word file and a named section inside it. It does not interpret Tax Code Section 23.175; establish a current contractor relationship; identify a person, owner, account, tract, lease, well, or mineral interest; calculate appraisal, taxable value, taxes, or sale value; evaluate an offer; or recommend a legal, tax, appraisal, or transaction position. MRX provides educational information and resources only and does not buy mineral rights.

The official Howard CAD Reports and Plans page links the 2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan. The linked evidence object is a legacy Word file. In the recorded bytes, the section headed MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION states that producing oil and gas properties are valued each year under Tax Code Section 23.175 and names Thomas Y. Pickett Appraisal Group as contracted by the Howard County Board of Directors.

A controlled LibreOffice conversion placed that section on rendered physical page 17 of 43. The source file metadata reported 42 pages. That difference is the central locator caution: the section heading and source hash are durable controls; page 17 is a conversion-specific convenience, not a universal Word-page claim.

Follow the publisher route to the exact Word file

The publisher relationship begins on Howard CAD’s Reports and Plans page. On 2026-08-29, that page visibly listed 2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan and linked the direct .doc file used here.

Locator control	Recorded observation
Publisher surface	Howard CAD Reports and Plans
Visible link label	2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan
Evidence object	Legacy .doc Word file
Durable section heading	MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION
Conversion-specific page	LibreOffice-rendered physical page 17 of 43

The Reports and Plans page establishes who published the link and which plan label was selected. The direct file establishes the exact bytes. The local conversion helps a human inspect those bytes, but it is not the authoritative source object.

Match the exact source bytes before citing the section

The complete file was retrieved on 2026-08-29:

File control	Recorded value
Final host	howardcad.org
HTTP result	200
Content type	application/msword
Complete-file size	218,624 bytes
Last-Modified	Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:34:46 GMT
ETag	67814c26-35600
SHA-256	8fbc52a5d021ded0ee6f9b99f4dde7bc99d3249bc2d1f2b9be1515ca97548a73
Container	Microsoft Compound File Binary
Embedded page count	42
Security field	0

The SHA-256 identifies the retrieved source bytes. If a later retrieval produces another hash, preserve it as a new source state. A matching hash proves byte identity with this record; it does not prove that a statement remains current after the plan period or applies to a particular property.

Locate the section by heading before using a page number

In a controlled local workflow, the source Word file was converted with LibreOffice to a 43-page PDF solely for inspection. The first page headed MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION appeared as rendered physical page 17.

That conversion is reproducible, but it is not canonical. Word layout can change with the application, version, fonts, printer metrics, page settings, or conversion engine. The source metadata’s 42-page count and the conversion’s 43-page count demonstrate the risk directly.

Use this locator order:

1. Verify the direct file URL and SHA-256.
2. Search the source for the exact heading MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION.
3. Use rendered page 17 only when working from the recorded LibreOffice conversion.
4. Record the renderer and output page count with any page-based citation.

This preserves a useful human locator without pretending that a reflowable Word file has one universal physical-page map.

Read the plan statement as a period-bound source claim

The recorded section makes two connected statements. It ties annual producing-oil-and-gas valuation to Section 23.175, and it names Thomas Y. Pickett Appraisal Group in a contractor statement attributed to the Howard County Board of Directors.

Those are statements in the recorded 2025-2026 plan. They do not independently establish:

• the current contract status after the plan period;
• how Section 23.175 should be interpreted or applied;
• which appraisal method or inputs apply to a specific interest;
• an owner’s taxable value, taxes owed, market value, or sale value; or
• the accuracy of an account, title, acreage, production, reserve, or well record.

The Texas Legislature’s current Chapter 23 page is the authoritative route for current statutory text. The Howard plan is evidence of what that recorded district plan says; it is not a substitute for the statute.

Record the embedded-title discrepancy without explaining it

The source is hosted by Howard CAD, linked from Howard CAD’s Reports and Plans page, and contains visible text that repeatedly names Howard. Its embedded document title, however, is ECTOR COUNTY APPRAISAL DISTRICT.

Other embedded controls recorded from the source include author eddie, last editor Cara Nichols, a creation timestamp of 2024-07-24, and a last-saved timestamp of 2024-08-14. These are file metadata observations, not proof of authorship, approval, origin, or the reason for the title discrepancy.

The safe conclusion is narrow: the embedded title and the publisher-visible identity do not match. Do not describe the mismatch as an error, template reuse, copying, misfiling, or evidence about Ector County unless a separate authoritative source establishes that explanation.

Keep the Howard and Ector source lanes separate

The Howard Central Appraisal District homepage supplies the public publisher identity. The Howard Reports and Plans page supplies the plan-link relationship. The direct Word file supplies the byte identity, metadata, section heading, and recorded plan statements.

Existing Ector CAD articles own Ector-hosted source objects and Ector-specific page locators. The embedded word ECTOR in this Howard-hosted file does not transfer this article into that corpus or validate an Ector source.

The Howard CAD 2024 Category G totals locator owns a different source and job: one annual-report PDF row. The Howard CAD 2025 ZIP integrity record owns a later archive container. Neither source validates or replaces this reappraisal-plan section.

Use a citation-ready answer with an explicit evidence stop

A compact answer about Howard CAD 2025-2026 mineral property valuation should:

1. Name Howard Central Appraisal District as the publisher surface.
2. Link the exact .doc source beside the section statement.
3. Record the source hash, MIME type, byte size, and retrieval date.
4. Name the exact MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION heading.
5. Attribute the Section 23.175 and contractor statements to the recorded plan.
6. Treat LibreOffice-rendered page 17 as conversion-specific and state the 43-page output count.
7. Disclose the embedded Ector-title discrepancy without assigning a cause.
8. Stop before interpreting the statute, extending the contractor statement beyond the plan period, or applying the plan to a property.

This structure improves verifiability, information gain, and answer-citation readiness. It does not guarantee ranking, indexing, retrieval, LLM citation, traffic, leads, or revenue.

Preserve later versions as new source states

For a later review, record the publisher-page observation date, visible link label, final source URL, HTTP result, MIME type, byte size, Last-Modified value, ETag, SHA-256, container type, embedded metadata, section heading, extraction method, renderer, rendered page count, and rendered section page.

If any of those controls change, preserve the new retrieval separately. Do not silently overwrite this record, assume why the file changed, or carry a period-bound contractor statement into another year.

Stop when the task requires a current contract determination, statutory interpretation, owner or property identification, title, acreage, appraisal, tax, production, reserves, offer evaluation, sale-value estimate, filing, protest, or legal conclusion. Those tasks need a separate source package and qualified review. This page supplies only a bounded, verifiable plan-section locator.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the mineral property valuation section?

A controlled LibreOffice conversion of the recorded Word file places MINERAL PROPERTY VALUATION on rendered physical page 17 of 43. Because Word documents can reflow, use the section heading and source hash as the durable locator rather than assuming every renderer will produce page 17.

What does the recorded plan say about Tax Code Section 23.175?

The plan says producing oil and gas properties are valued each year in accordance with Section 23.175. Use the official Texas Legislature page for the current statutory text; this article does not interpret or apply it.

Which contractor does the plan name?

The recorded 2025-2026 plan text names Thomas Y. Pickett Appraisal Group as contracted by the Howard County Board of Directors. This is a period-bound transcription of the plan, not a claim about a later or current contract.

Why does the embedded file title mention Ector County?

The recorded Word file’s embedded title is ECTOR COUNTY APPRAISAL DISTRICT. Howard CAD hosts and links the file, while the visible plan content names Howard. The available evidence does not establish why the metadata differs.

Can this plan determine my mineral value or tax bill?

No. The source locator does not identify an owner, account, tract, well, acreage, production, appraisal result, taxable value, tax owed, offer, sale value, or legal conclusion.

Sources reviewed for this article

• Howard CAD Reports and Plans page (accessed 2026-08-29)
• Howard CAD 2025-2026 Reappraisal Plan Word file (accessed 2026-08-29)
• Howard Central Appraisal District homepage (accessed 2026-08-29)
• Texas Tax Code Chapter 23, including Section 23.175 (accessed 2026-08-29)