History

In the 1960s, Bill Harding, a full-time employee of Gulf Oil, was responsible for appealing values for its Texas property tax portfolio. Before the Property Tax Code was adopted and before the Property Tax Reform in 1978, Texas property values were assessed by local taxing entities, which often led to the values varying widely on the same property. Protest hearings were conducted by each separate tax office.

Every year Bill traveled throughout the state negotiating values in over 100 counties that could include hundreds of tax offices. Since most of the property tax hearings were scheduled in the summer months, Bill’s sons would often travel along with him. Burney Harding, one of Bill’s sons, enjoyed the Texas countryside and acquired a liking to the property tax business.

In 1968, Bill Harding began a new chapter in his and his family’s life, when he decided to leave Gulf Oil and open a property tax consulting firm with Ken Clarke. Ken was a former engineer with Pritchard & Abbot Valuation Engineers, who specialized in establishing market values for various governmental agencies. Harding & Clarke, Inc. began with a few oil & gas companies as their clients and eventually became one of the leading property tax consulting firms in Texas.

Michael Carbone, like Burney Harding, also grew up in the property tax business. Mike’s mother was a property tax assessor/collector for fifty years and also served the State Property Tax Board by auditing assessments for the Property Tax Reform of 1978. After finishing his studies, Mike Carbone worked with Pritchard & Abbot Valuation Engineers and in 1971, he joined Harding & Clarke.

After Ken Clarke left the firm, Bill Harding purchased Arthur Eaves Property Tax Consulting firm, which expanded the size of the existing portfolio. The firm became a solid consulting firm specializing in property tax reduction of commercial property and continuing its mineral management services to oil & gas firms. During this period, Burney Harding and Mike Carbone became the firm’s most effective property tax consultants.

In 1984, Bill Harding sold the company to his son, Burney Harding and to Mike Carbone, forming our existing firm, Harding and Carbone, Inc. Over the years, Harding and Carbone, Inc. has added numerous high-profile companies to its portfolio and has earned an outstanding reputation among the business and assessing communities as an effective and professional property tax firm.

The journey now continues with Jason Rodriguez who joined Harding and Carbone in 2009. His outstanding work as a property tax consultant and leader led Burney and Mike to promote him to CEO and Partner. Jason has been overseeing the operations of Harding and Carbone since 2014.